Westward Storm
by The Sesh
Summary: Two years after the Forth Shinobi War. The Five Nations find themselves at peace but now they face other domestic challenges. One fateful day, The land of stone witnesses the murder of four ANBU. Unable to deal with it themselves, Iwa called upon the alliance to help with this situation. Only for things to get out of hand. Rated M. Nar x Hina, Sak x Sas, OC x OC pairings.
1. Chapter I Mission Accepted!

**First of all. Some may figure this story feels similar. That's because I have overhauled my original to really shovel out some major plot holes that just made the overall tone dissatisfying as the writer to write. So I am approaching it at a new angle in hopes it's more entertaining. Basically more Naruto than before and I have settled a well thought out story too.**

 **The long-short is that the main pairings are going to be Naruto-Hinata. Sakura-Sasuke and OC-OC. There are other ones but they are less prominent. Some people may not enjoy the fact I focus on the OC story as much as I focus on Naruto. Think of it as a classic approach that is seen throughout the series that you do grow to understand the OC as if it was original content by Kishimoto. So that's basically my inspiration. So bare with me and look out for the (Rated M) mature content and I have finally grown a spine and cemented my OC backstory.**

 **Oh and I have 28 chapters ready. You WILL get one every week (give or take a day or something) so there is that.**

 **Also please welcome by Beta, a good friend of mine who loves Naruto just as much as me, Missrach**

 **I don't own Naruto, same goes for all future chapters. Please support the original owners and writers who made this amazing universe which many of us enjoy.**

 **Hope you enjoy. ^.^**

"Come in." Kakashi ordered at the door across her office. She was briefly patting himself down, adjusted the Hokage's hat and settled in between two piles of documents. Four ninja entered the room, Sakura, Shikamaru, Hinata, and Naruto who was scratching his head over some distant thought. The four stood in front of the Hokage and waited to see what Kakashi wanted to tell them.

They all looked to attention, a far-cry to how Kakashi remembered them. Shikamaru stood in standard Jonin attire with his hair tied up into a spikey bunch on top of his head. Glinting in on his ear lobe was the metallic symbol of the bond between the Nara, Yamanaka, and Akimichi clans. Out of the four shinobi, he was probably the most relaxed; his hands stuffed into his pockets and standing there listening to his orders. Shikamaru had been working as the Hokage's assistant since Tsunade left the position and dragged Shizune with her to Suna where a plague had been killing off many citizens over there.

Sakura had been left in Konoha, because she was now the only medic capable of healing the most injured of the lot and teach the next generation of ninja medics for the field. A position becoming very popular among young aspiring academy students. She wore a crimson red tunic with standard shinobi black pants for her leggings. Two features were considered striking on the girl; her bubble-gum pink hair and her emerald green eyes, striking in their beauty and colour, only to be matched by the blue diamond on her forehead. A mark that symbolised the proof that she had obtained the strength-of-one-hundred seal.

Hinata was the other girl in the group. In terms of growth, she was second only to Naruto as she had came far since the shinobi war. Filling in her role as heir to the Hyuuga clan through strength, will, and relations between other villages and clans, building a reputation along side Naruto. It was no secret that she loved the blond man. Although she would approach him much more tactfully, as her confidence allowed her to be more sure of herself. She still adorned the lavender colour on her jacket but instead of being baggy it was very well designed and neat with white fur lining hugging around the leaf headband that hung around her neck. The kind of jacket that would still be respectable for the Dynamo but approachable to even children as she still radiated kindness as she always had done.

Naruto thought he understood her feelings but as ever he was clueless to the Hyuugas depth in her emotions. The blond still wore his orange jacket, albeit toned down by red and blue trimmings, including the Uzumaki clan symbol. Overall a coat not far off alike what Hinata was wearing, only not as padded and so much cooler to wear. He may be the most powerful shinobi in the five villages but he still pulled the odd minor prank, and livened up the lives of the people around him with his antics. Since the war, he had been involved with many diplomatic duties seeing as Kakashi was grooming his former student to become a decent Hokage. Power was one thing, but the tact and intelligence needed to run a village was another. For this reason, Hinata had been singing silent praises to Kakashi as he would often select the pair to accompany one-another during diplomatic meetings. Yes, all four had started growing into fully fledged adults.

The Hokage finally dropped his musings, as he had stalled long enough in the name of suspense. "I have a mission for you." He paused, "Rank A."

Three of the young adults looked concerned. Frowning, because it has been almost a year since the village needed a rank A mission done. Naruto, resorting back to his childish excitement.

"Tell us Kakashi-sensei, what needs to be done that the best ninjas in the village are needed?"

Shikamaru and Sakura both rolled their eyes. Naruto still had not grown up. Kakashi sighed. Being humble was never his strong suit.

"Now isn't the time to be excited, I fear this may end up escalating to a rank S mission."

"So what is it?" Sakura replied.

"I am not sure you know about this, but for a few months now many people have been killed nearby and within the land of Earth. Now, most of these have been bandits, thieves, and slavers; the standard unassuming lot that seemed to plague the five nations, but..." Kakashi sighed and stood to look out of the window. "Two days ago, four of the Stone's ANBU were found, killed on mission along with their charge."

The room was morbidly silent. ANBU were elite and difficult to defeat, because of their unique ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu. They were often picked for specific and dangerous tasks which did put them at risk on almost every mission. However, four deaths and total mission failure was almost unheard from shinobi of their calibre. Kakashi continued.

"The Village hidden in the Stone has asked for help within the shinobi alliance to find out who was responsible. Many of the villages are struggling, since the great war and the Land of Earth is having too many issues with crime. Sakura!" She stood to attention. "You are the medic on this mission."

"Sir!"

"Shikamaru! You're relieved of current duties to be team leader. You need to put your intelligence to something other than paper work." Shikamaru nodded, but sighed a little at the trouble this will cause. "Hinata, help with your sensory abilities."

"Y-Yes, Hokage." She responded, getting nervous about the mission already.

"And Naruto, protect everyone."

"You can count on me! Believe it!" He gave the thumbs up with his left arm, still wrapped in bandages. He had it replaced after he lost the limb fighting Sasuke at the Valley of the End. There had been talks of rebuilding the statues as Naruto and Sasuke as a memorial to the last great war, some wanted to keep the original Madara and Hashirama. Others felt it ought to be left as it is now. Nevertheless, the idea was on the back-burner for now as more immediate issues were needing to be addressed.

"The four of you are to help the Stone find out who killed the ANBU. They should have more information about what happened, but know this: Do. Not. Engage. We have no idea who or what we are dealing with, but if the enemy are strong enough to defeat ANBU.." He trailed off and sighed. "If it is linked to the recent murders within the criminal world it could blow up to something monsterous, you need to be careful. Do you understand?" The last part was largely directed towards Naruto who picked up on this and bowed his head in response, still silently grinning at the floor. Kakashi sighed. He knew that the best laid plans were doomed to fail when Naruto shook things up.

"Now go and leave on the hour. Make your way to Iwa." Kakashi dismissed them with a wave of his hand. He didn't see the four leave as he was already buried himself in quickly scribbling notes down for later. Without Shikamaru or Shizune running the village, things won't go as smoothly.

The four ninja left Kakashi in peace. He wiped his forehead. Kakashi had not felt this uneasy since the fourth Great war. He put down his pen and notes and looked at the letter concerning about the Stone. He reassured himself over his choice not to tell them there was a possibility that this was an attack from a single assailant. Which meant he was strong enough to take on all four ANBU at the same time.

"ANBU!" He called and a masked ninja kneeled before him. The UNBU wore standard grey attire with a white mask in the shape of a cat. The 'whiskers' were painted green to symbolise the leaf. "Get Sai to send a message to Sasuke, tell him he should head to Iwagakure." That should reassure him. No one really knew where Sasuke was, but at least it was possible to communicate with him through Sai. He and his own Hawk summon gave the village updates on progress, but they were predictably vague. So, no one could decipher his location should his hawk be intercepted. Sai's messenger bird had the advantage of exploding into ink and so destroying the message. Kakashi could only guess if Sai actually knew where Sasuke was or if he had a way of finding out. But Sai's lips were sealed on the matter, even for the Hokage.

* * *

Forty minutes later, and Naruto was found impatiently waiting by the North Gate. In his excitement to finally get a mission worthy of his skills, he had rushed at full speed to be packed with supplies and gear to be ready for the journey. He leaned against the grand entrance and watched as the clouds slunk past. His arms folded and one finger tapping against his arm, he was slowly relaxing. The passing of the clouds was becoming a good past time. This was a habit from Shikamaru himself, as he loved nothing more than to stop and stare at the heavens as they passed on by.

"Naruto." A soft voice called out and snapped Naruto's attention to where the voice came from. It was Hinata, she looked at Naruto with her pale silver eyes and long hair just catching in the breeze. Naruto smile and approached Hinata with his arms wide and embraced her. She was still shy towards him, but with the help from Naruto and the village, she was steadily growing out of it, and could be affectionate towards Naruto with only a slight blush. The couple weren't official, yet, but they had spent a lot of time together since the war, sharing missions and training together. The idea of hugging and maybe the odd sneaky kiss to the cheek had Hinata building up the courage to advance on Naruto. Of course he didn't mind, even reciprocating them. They stood in the entrance and talked to each other about the last time they had left the village. To them, it felt like an age had passed since they got something more important to do than deliveries, diplomacy or guarding. Well, important was relative to Naruto, who anticipated adventure over the mundane.

For the jinchuriki, his feelings were more conflicted. He considered Hinata a precious person, from a combination of her advancements, and his subconscious telling him she should be more. But Hinata had grown to be subtle. Her actions allowed her to get close without alerting the poor boy. Who, with no doubt, would either misinterpret or grow too nervous to be near the girl. Not to say Naruto was not intelligent. He was capable of learning and understanding, but his past did not allow for normal development. Love, which Hinata had in abundance, was an alien concept to him still. Precious people were not a concept as deep as love, but instead almost likened to an objective for a mission. Naruto trained hard to accomplish such tasks, and it was the main driving force while he was younger. On the other hand, Hinata only came to realise this after the war. She made bold moves and claims of her affections, only to see them cement her as a 'precious person'. This was why she sang praises to Kakashi for allowing her to go on more missions. Why she pushed on and kept up her affections to show there was a difference. For now, she would be happy just spending time with her love, and the 'more' would come as a sweet reward for being there for him.

A short way from the couple stood Sakura, who was watching the two ninja talking. Shikamaru walked up behind her.

"You know you should be over there with them," Shikamaru prodded.

"Yeah sorry, just soaking up the view, they have been growing closer now." Sakura replied, she looked back at Shikamaru who glanced away. "Just wish the idiot would finally see Hinata as something more."

Shikamaru didn't reply, but instead calmly walked up to Naruto and Hinata with Sakura following behind.

Once Shikamaru approached he called out, "Ready to go? We have a long walk ahead of us."

Naruto burst out "Alright! Let's go!"

The team followed Naruto out of their home village. Naruto and Hinata in front with Shikamaru and Sakura behind. They were not going to fear any risk from bandits until they were far into the land of Grass. They were one of the many minor factions that fell from grace in the aftermath of the war. Just so happened that Kusagakure was demolished by the ten-tails, and now the lawless had gained control. It was a shame to the Leaf in general, because not only was the country a peaceful one, but they were also considered as allies. As they stepped out from the forest, they could be forgiven if the Jonin assumed that nothing had changed. The land of grass stretched out by the foot of some mountains that marked the beginning of the land of earth. A large open space covered in meadows, rivers, and lakes. Creating a breath-taking scene as clouds wrapped around the higher valleys ahead. These mountains were second only to the mountains in the land of Lightning in terms of sheer glory.

As the team passed by it was quickly apparent that the country had grounded itself to a standstill. Many farms were abandoned and already leaving the ground wild to the grasses that gave the vary land its name. A sort of depressing silence covered each hamlet they passed. Some showed that they were burned down. some buildings where knocked down. But the vast majority stood silent and uninhabited.

"I forget how good we have it in Konoha." Naruto eventually broke the silence after they walked passed the seventh abandoned hamlet on the second day of travel. He looked around with darkened eyes. Hinata could tell this weighed on him despite everything, the world was still beyond his control.

"It's not so bad, they've moved into larger villages." Shikamaru answered, while he was watching up as the clouds. He knew a lot about the current state of affairs because of his position. He knew how it looked, but at least Naruto would not see the crater that had excavated Kusagakure. Rebuilding had been exceptionally slow as most people who had lived there were now gone with the village. Not to mention the scum of society taking advantage and literally dividing the country up amongst themselves.

The party continued on towards the Village hidden in the Stone. They walked through the meadows until they noticed the path started to climb and wrap around steeper hills.

Sometimes they would walk up, sometimes that made their way down. crossing bridges over and over as the path criss-crossed mountainous rivers. Over time, the temperature dropped and they re-entered heavily forested areas. Unlike the Land of Fire, the woods here housed mighty pine trees that reached as tall as some mountains. Or so it felt, as they walked by, under the needles of these grand trees. Deeper into the territory, settlements full of people were noticed. The valley they walked up was surprisingly lively with hundreds of people using the same road for their own adventures.

One thing did remain was the underlying gloom. Shikamaru also knew about the horrific crimes that sprouted in this land, it was not dumb bandits and petty criminals. Iwagakure had issues with vast mafia-like crime that proved to be difficult, even for a shinobi village to deal with. The feeling was oppressive, although not many people actually suffered untimely deaths or grievances. Of course it did not help that the clouds trapped in the valleys made everything feel dark and damp.

* * *

By the time the ninjas reached the original Village of the Stone, it was the third evening of the third day of travel. Iwagakure stood proudly on top of a mesa that headed one of the valleys. The naturally forming flat land proved to be equally defensible and usable to build on. Although this was the original village, much alike Konoha, Iwa had sprawled out down the valley, once space became too limited within the rocky walls. The main road turned into more of a highway, leading to the grand carved stone arch flanked by buildings carved from the very rock. Lights twinkled in the twilight as the team approached. They were exhausted from the journey but made for good time.

Shikamaru was first to notice a young Genin wearing maroon Iwa uniform trying to get their attention.

"Hey, err, you're the response squad as per Lord Tsuchikage's request?" The young shinobi looked like he only just entered his teenage years, just as the leaf jonin were leaving them behind. He was frantically exaggerating his movements as if stressed about something. Likely getting constant updates of the Tsuchikage getting impatient over the arrivals. The four visitors nodded and answered the Genin's question.

"Great if you could follow me. Oh, err, don't worry about security checks, I've been told to hurry things up. So, erm, please, this way. Ah, no this way."

The party was lead straight to the Tsuchikage, who had been waiting for them since he heard about their approach. The Tsuchikage was Ohnoki himself, a venerable man who had held office for as long as anyone could remember. His white hair made his posture look wise, although he has been known to glare holes into his enemies with his gaze alone. Of late, he had been falling ill more often, as age was catching up. Time was cruel in its treatment over the old Tsuchikage. Recently, he had been giving more and more Kage powers to his granddaughter, Kurotsuchi, and grooming her to take his place. Ohnoki sat surrounded by officials and trusted shinobi. He stared at the door waiting for a knock which surely came.

The group was lead in by the young shinobi, who then bowed and left the room, closing the door behind.

The Tsuchikage, Ohnoki, grumbled, "Is this it? Hmph I guess it'll do."

He looked around the room to see some familiar faces and some unfamiliar faces. There were the Jonin ninjas from the Leaf, Hinata, Naruto, Sakura, and Shikamaru. He gave a nod of approval. Then, looked at the ninjas from the Sand, another team of four, this time Chunin level. He recognised Gaara's student, Matsuri, but the other three looked like her age and ability. They looked tired but that was to no surprise being on the outside of their quarantined homeland. Two more ninjas from the Cloud, both looked in their forties and well experienced. The man even had an aged scar while the woman had bandages over most of her exposed arms. Lastly the Tsuchikage looked at the ninja sent by the Mist. He was a tall, a good head height, taller than the other shinobi present. His armour brandished several sets of weapons and tools.

The man stood with his arms crossed and silently waiting. "As you all know, since the war, civilians have been gravitating towards our villages. I am well aware how everyone is coping, but crime and gangs have been on the rise and", he paused. "Been difficult to deal with." He sighed at admitting the social troubles which plagued his village. "Every time we deal with one gang, another takes its place. While most of the bandits were citizens taking advantage of our weakness, some of the larger gangs have shinobi joining up with them. This was the main issue we have been talking about since the great war. Until about two months ago, suddenly certain gangs and bandits were being killed off by an unknown shinobi. At first, we thought about leaving the matter. Most of the gangs that were targeted were the worst of the humanity. Slavers, murders, and rapists. Ex-shinobi and Non-shinobi alike."

The Tsuchikage stopped to collect his thoughts and to make sure everyone was listening and waited for questioning.

Matsuri spoke up. "Until your ANBU were attacked?"

Ohnoki nodded. "You are correct, the recent deaths made us think about two things. First, who's side are they on? Second, how powerful are they? Normally, we would have already have some decent knowledge, but we are in the dark over these individuals."

"Do we have any leads?" Shikamaru spoke his thoughts aloud. "We believe it is a single male, with the possibility he is not alone. Also, the incident is related to the bandits somehow. Their wounds are similar."

"Your report said the ANBU and their charge were killed, any ideas on why their charge was attacked?" The woman from the Cloud spoke. She had a gentle voice and she flicked her hair back as if it helped her concentrate further.

Kurotsuchi, one of the Tsuchikage's bodyguards, his granddaughter, and his right-hand woman. replied. "I remember his request. It was ten days ago when he made it. A rich nobleman who offered to pay double for protection, hence the ANBU. His name was…" She looked through a few sheets of paper and bringing one to the top. "Chuno Fritushi. A man in charge of a large estate west of here. He offered money, but also a sheet of paper. He spoke about how valuable it potentially is, and feared if he kept it any longer, he would become a target. At the scene, no piece of paper was found, well not to his description."

"Do we know anything about the paper?" One of Matsuri's team-mates spoke up.

"Only that it was very valuable, clearly enough to kill for, apparently."

Sakura had a thought and then shared it. "Do we know of any of his abilities?"

"Actually, we do. Although there aren't many survivors from the bandits; some witnesses have reported use of lightning and fire chakra. Also, an 'invisible' chakra, which we are currently assuming as an refined form of wind chakra. And lastly, slash and stab wound which indicated a bladed weapon or kunai. The wounds on the dead seem to back up their testimony. Although they appear to clean up their weapons after each combat."

Ohnoki waited for more questions with his eyes closed. He opened them. "Right, youngsters, I am allowing Kurotsuchi to join you in this investigation. I wish I could spare more, but we have civil-protection duties to carry out. You are all dismissed but listen to Kurotsuchi. She will lead the investigation and organise information and roles for you all."

The team of twelve walked out of the office and Kurotsuchi lead them to a hall. She stood and addressed each group. "Alright here is the plan, although feel free to adapt it to suit your needs. Sand shinobi, may I have your names please?"

"Matsuri." Matsuri replied. She wore the tan flak jacket, with a protective hat that covered her brown hair and neck from the sand. She was armed with a coiled Johyo on her belt.

"Mitsuoni." A female shinobi with long dark purple hair with the tips bleached white. Dressed similar to Matsuri, only without a hat. Under her flak jacket, was a dark purple kimono, which was custom made to still allow movement, but also allured to her slim and beautiful figure. She wasn't visibly armed, but her sweet stature was not to be misinterpreted.

"I'm Atalre and this is Silent Geno." He was the shinobi who spoke before, and had the same goofy smile Naruto used to brandish at every given moment. He carried a Naginata in his hand, using it to lean on. Silent Geno simply nodded and scratched his already growing goatee. Staying true to his name, he remained quiet. Both wore standard sand shinobi gear, although Silent Geno was a good size or two larger than his friend who introduced him.

"Alright." Responded Kurotsuchi. "We have a few bandit survivors in prison, I'd like you to see what they know about the whole situation."

Kurotsuchi called in a young Genin to show them the way. She passed a letter to said Genin, who then left with the Sand shinobi in tow.

"Shinobi from the Clouds. Your names, please."

"Druarni." The woman spoke with her soft voice.

"And I'm her partner, Arra." Both had well used equipment and Arra had a Katana sheathed on his back.

"You two are to deliver this message to the Ro Alliance. They seem to be benefitting from gangs being killed off. The Tsuchikage wishes to strike a deal with them if it means we get more information."

She turned to the tall ninja from the Mist. "Yonoaka was it?"

He spoke in a deep voice. Deep enough to remind Sakura and Naruto of Zabuza.

"I see you have heard of me." The remaining leaf ninja looked a little puzzled because they had no idea who he was. Yonoaka continued. "What do you wish for me to do?"

"I need you to go around finding criminal gangs, see if they know anything, and apprehend them, if you have possible evidence of their wrong doing. Also, try and find our target. Out of everyone here I know that you are superior as an assassin. Try to keep the target alive."

"I shall return with him." He left the room with the two Stone shinobi.

Lastly Kurotsuchi turned to the remaining four ninjas. "I know about Naruto, Sakura, and Shikamaru, but may I have your name miss?"

"Hinata Hyuuga." She spoke quietly and bowed at the woman. Kurotsuchi managed to hear and jotted her name down.

"I'd like the four of you to go to the Fritushi estate, and see if you can find out more about why he was targeted." She then looked at the door and called out. The same genin who greeted the four at the gates entered the room.

"My name is Tammarake. Just ask if you need help around the village."

"Thank you, we'd like to find a room to sleep in." Shikamaru replied.

"And somewhere to eat. Man, I'm starving." Interrupted Naruto. Shikamaru sighed, he'd rather get some sleep, but Naruto practically runs on food, ramen specifically.


	2. Chapter II Encounter Gone Unoticed!

**First chapter to have a very obvious change from the original story. Hope you enjoy.**

 **Xbigmac93: Let me know what you think of this direction.**

 **Also to note: sentences with "-dashes to either side-" represent another language. This is for the readers benefit so just remember most characters don't understand this.**

 **Thank you to Missrach.**

That night ended rather interesting for the four leaf shinobi. Naruto ate the whole stock of noodles from a now-rich noodle stand. Shikamaru did not care and kept quiet, while Hinata politely ate her fill and talking to Naruto. Leaving Sakura to storm off by herself after loosing the argument that ramen was bad for their health for the hundredth time. She had stumbled across Rock Lee of all people. Trailing behind him was around forty very grumpy and tired looking genin. Their headbands indicated they were from many different villages. Most of them were from minority shinobi villages or even prodigies from purely civilian villages, and had essentially unique attire in the shinobi world. Each one whispered their thanks when Lee spotted Sakura, and immediately stopped, clearly ignoring the complaints about how much he was pushing said genin.

"Sakura! Indeed it is a youthful night if I am graced by your presence."

"Oh hi, Lee, I would have said I didn't see you there, but we both know... yeah. So what are you doing here?" Sakura folded her arms and looked down the line of worn out genin. Some were almost on the floor gasping for oxygen.

"I've been training the next line of youth to be fine shinobi."

"It looks like you're sapping them for all their 'youth'." Sakura raised her middle and index fingers and twitched them as air quotation marks.

"They are inexperienced, but I am sure after hard training they will be every bit as youthful as yours truly."

"Say youthful one more time." Sakura muttered under her breath.

"Say what?"

"Never mind-hey! I remember. Wasn't this the combined genin program?"

Lee gave her an enthusiastic thumbs up. "Got it in one!" Poor bastards, the rosette thought . "So what brings you to Iwa?"

"Oh, Naruto, Shikamaru, Hinata, and I are on a mission here." The girl counted off the names on her fingers. She also noticed a few of the genin mutter, "Naruto's here?" Some getting very excited as the blond evidently was renowned since the war.

"That is excellent news indeed. Tell me, where is my rival?"

Sakura sighed heavily. "Stuffing his face in."

"Actually the vender did not have enough ramen." A soft voice that belonged to Hinata interrupted the two.

"Oh, there you are, and Bushy brow, you're here?" Naruto's entrance was greeted by many gasps of awe and admiration, albeit with effort. They managed not to swamp the Jinchuriki with questions in fear that Lee would push them harder as punishment. Or reward, to the large force of genin, they were not sure which was which with Lee in charge. Naruto managed to pick up on the air of excitement though. "I see you're training these genin."

"Yes, my rival! I am teaching the way of undying youth to those who need it, or come from places unable to facilitate their passion." Naruto swore he could see fire burning in his eyes as he thought about training.

"Once our mission is over, I'll come by and help you if you like." Naruto gave a thumbs up to everyone. "Work hard and you'll be as great or even greater than me." This earned him several cheers and a loving smile from Hinata. She blushed slightly as this reminded her, not that she needed reminding, of how great Naruto was to her and to the rest of the world.

"You know, you're becoming more obvious that you love him." Sakura whispered to Hinata. This immediately turned her mild blush to a furious crimson, the Hyuuga looked away before anyone else saw. Anyone else, bar Shikamaru, but he just rolled his eyes at their antics.

"Yosh, that is a promise of a lifetime. I'll do one-thousand press-ups every day you delay, until the day you show my genin the fruits of their youth." This time even Naruto's sweat-dropped as he slowly backed away from the energetic friend, his hands up in a placid stance.

"I promise you we will be as quick as we can just... go easy on your students." Naruto slowly excused himself and the trio of bystanders followed suit, leaving Lee to turn on his students. With no end to his energy in sight.

"Right now I feel like a new wave of youth has crashed over me, like the rejuvenating waves of the ocean. Follow me for a lap of the city." This followed by many groans and curses by the forty genin, a couple regretting their choice to becoming a shinobi. Leaving a select few somehow as enthusiastic as Lee to become fully fledged ninja.

The hotel they were staying in was one of the more fancier establishments in the area. Clearly as part of leaving a good impression on the foreign ninja during their stay. The foyer was very decedent with dark polished wood and red silk drapes, lining the features around the wall. Behind the reception desk was grand wooden stairs. Only Hinata was decadent enough to recognise that marble was used for the steps. Off to the left were large double doors that lead to a dining hall, which presumably served the 'breakfast' part of the hotel's service. As nice as the interior was, the building was built to be tall rather than wide and only offered two rooms per floor. Granted they were large and equipped with en-suits, many with large queen or king sized beds. Although, the four shinobi were selected to the rooms with two beds as their demands were satisfied.

The early morning started off normal enough, with Shikamaru kicking Naruto until he was awake. Then, leaving for breakfast, muttering, "troublesome" under his breath. Naruto complained about how comfortable he was, but quickly followed the Head of the Nara clan down to where the girls and Lee were waiting for them.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting." Naruto gave a sheepish grin as he sat down next to Hinata, subconsciously granted but truth be told it was the only other available chair on the table.

"Alright. As it turns out, Lee here knows the way to the Fritushi estate. So, he is brining his team of genin along. At least some of the way. It's a drag, but it's the fastest way to get there if we were shown." Shikamaru filled Naruto in with a monotone voice. Everyone except Naruto stood to leave. The blond flashed a look of betrayal as he had not even ate a piece of toast yet.

"This is what you get for sleeping in." Sakura helpfully informed her teammate.

While the team was expecting a large swarm of genin, they were met with only three. All of which were brandishing the konoha headbands. Lee was busy discussing something with the trio of young ninja.

"Lee! You said we weren't going to have to wait on your genin." Sakura called after she counted that they were thirty-seven short. She just received a thumbs up before Lee called back. They weren't close enough to talk at normal volume as of yet.

"Don't worry my Sakura, the flames of youth will only burn in my personal team!"

"Lee has a genin team?" Naruto asked towards Hinata although he was open for anyone to answer.

"Yes, Naruto. He err, got them w-while we were on a m-mission together." Hinata answered

"Oh, I guess I just missed it."

"Mnn. I-it happens." Hinata couldn't help but blush, as she could remember exactly which mission it was. A two-week diplomacy route Kumogakure to, by coincidence, make plans for the combined genin program. Although the Raikage did not feel necessary to send a team of struggling genin, they were willing to facilitate one phase of the program, the kenjutsu, as their village was well equipped for such an art. More importantly it gave Hinata the first of many opportunities to be with Naruto for extended periods of time.

Once the party were all collected underneath the stone archway that signalled the entrance into the hidden village of Iwagakure, Lee was able to introduce the three genin he had under his wing. The three genin looked fairly regular. As Lee introduced them. First was Dentsu, described as the heavy hitter of the group. He had a look similar to Kba when he was younger - only wearing dark green shinobi gear. It was as close as Lee managed to get the young student to wearing the jumpsuit, without actually managing such feat. He appeared to take his training seriously with both of his arms bandaged up and the fabric was even frayed at the knuckles.

The more animated member of the group, especially when he saw Naruto, was introduced as Nago. He had longer, darker hair than his partner. Instead of showing off his appearance, he decided to keep it hidden under a black hoody with orange stripes. He had openly greeted Naruto and very quickly told him how much he looks up to the Jinchuriki, making Naruto smile and scruff his hair under the hood. If it had not of been for Shikamaru loudly coughing in discontent, they would have started training and likely forgot about the mission for an hour or so.

Last of all was a quiet girl who seemed to have drifted to the back of the group, unwilling to be noticed. Such notions were short lived as Lee helpfully dragged her out. If Kakashi was here he would have sworn it was Rin because of the brown hair cut into a bob and purple clan-markings running down her cheek. Alas, the girl was introduced as Omi. She politely bowed, but still made every attempt to put someone else in the spotlight. While right now she wore a baggy hoodie much like Hinata. Only instead of a pale lavender, it was a more beige colour. Dentsu and Nago loudly commented how Lee actually persuaded her to wear the green jumpsuit for a week, causing the poor genin to blush a deep red. The Hyuuga could sympathise with her and so decided to intervene by pushing the conversation away from Omi and onto her favourite topic, Naruto.

As they were walking into the forested valley, the chat stopped and the pace picked up. Team Shikamaru were not planning on slowing down for the genin's sake, but instead moved at pull speed and hoped Lee's team was trained enough by Lee himself to keep up.

* * *

Further down the road were two figures nervously glancing up and down the road as if they were expecting to see someone. While they appeared to be younger than Naruto, the pair of cloaked figures were filthy and caked in dirt and blood. The male had his hood lowered only revealing the left half of his face, which was wrapped hastily in blood stained bandages. It was crude, but managed to stem the blood flow from his left eye. The remaining eye was a deep purple and darted around as he scouted the road in front of them. Currently his white cloak, well half white, the left was a muddy red from the injury on his eye, had been parted in such a way that his underclothes shone through; a sleeveless plain brown tunic. His left arm also had a distinct and noticeable feature. From fingertips to somewhere on his chest hidden by clothing, was a pitch black tattoo of intricate 'celtic' patterns. Unlike most tattoos, the pattern was as black as it was the day he brandished the markings. Usually, the ink would have begun to fade into a green-ish colour.

Unlike her male counterpart, the female in the pair was uninjured but breathing heavily from fatigue. While her head was covered in her hood, strands of orange hair and a string of turquoise beads managed to escape the confines of the fabric. Her arms were also unlike her partner, completely devoid of tattoos. Her cloak concealed the rest of her attire but it was doubtful if it was any different to her friend. The orange-haired girl scanned around with her significantly paler violet eyes. Unlike a hyuuga, her eyes were richer in colour and still had a black pupil. She noticed her partner unsheathing his sword slowly.

His sword was a long katana with a single cutting edge, while engraved on the flat of the blade was similar 'celtic' patterns as his left arm. Her own weapon was a smaller wakizashi, also forged to have a single cutting edge. Unlike the katana, her weapon was made of a darker metal and lacked the same detail. Realising what the man next to her was about to do she softly squeezed his shoulder.

"-Are you sure? We are both low on chakra.-" Her voice was soft and thick with a distinct accent and laced with fatigue. He just nodded his answer.

His answer was backed up with him 'pulling' a kunai out from his left hand, chakra moulding into the correct shape as he pulled the weapon free. Slowly and silently, he switched the kunai to his left hand and drew his katana with the right. His remaining eye scouted the road once more. Stillness and silence fell thickly onto the area around them. A twig snapped. The two figures leaped across the road but their move was cut short by a small salvo of kunai and shuriken. Immediately, the pair returned fire with kunai that they appeared to draw from thin air. To the untrained eye, the kunai sailed into the forest with no supposed target. As soon as the deadly blades vanished into the foliage, a pained grunt echoed around the woods and a heavy thump could be heard out of sight.

The man of the pair stood with his left flank facing the supposed threat. His sword was held fast behind him and a kunai in reverse grip was equipped in his left hand. While the hooded girl held her wakizashi with both hands, she raised her guard in front of her left foot.

"-We should go, before more come.-" The girl whispered.

"-They are catching up. We can't run. We'd just get more tired.-" His voice was deep, but the occasional hitch suggested he was struggling with exhaustion and pain.

The girl glanced at her partner with violet eyes. "-So, we stand and fight?-"

"-You run and keep our family alive. I'll hold them off for as long as I can.-"

The girl sighed heavily before quickly brushing her hood off, revealing a head of orange hair which was messily kept at shoulder length. The colour was broken by strings of turquoise beads which were tangled in her bangs. She closed her eyes and composed herself. "-I'm staying by your side.-"

"- _No!_ -" He snapped back with a harsh whisper. "-If we both die, our name will be forgotten, and our light will be extinguished forever. So go!-"

"-Will you forget about our family, and start thinking about yourself? You're missing a fucking eye! We are in no shape to fight. Besides, what would I do without you?-"

Their conversation was cut short as a new combatant joined the fray. The man jumped from tree to tree with such speed that when he leapt from the trunk of a near-by pine-tree, he was at the one-eyed shinobi in a blink of an eye. Defending kunai parried the offending kunai with a loud shriek of metal on metal, and sparks flying onto the ground in-between them. The sword immediately slashed across the gut of the attacker, only to disappointingly thud as the weapon bit into a substituted log. The confusion was momentary as the kunai burst into smoke, allowing the sword-wielder to use both hands for better control and jab at the attacker in a new direction. He followed up with a hay-maker strike from the left and a roundhouse kick to the face. He forced the attacker to the floor and righted his guard, forcing his blade towards yet more oncoming opponents.

The orange haired woman also had to deal with a second attacker. She blocked his hatchet by hooking her sword just under the blade. Her weapon was almost wrenched from her grip as the man pulled his axe back. Instead of allowing herself to be pulled forward, she allowed him to disarm her. She jumped back and immediately started weaving hand signs. Starting from recognisable hand signs, quickly diverging into a system of highly modified hand signs. The man charged her, but she was finished before he could close the distance.

"-Fire style: fireball cannon.-"

"What did y..." He questioned just as a ball of sapphire blue fire formed in between them. No sooner had it materialised, it shot forward too fast to dodge. For the poor victim was already struck in his chest and knocked back into the roadside. Dead. The smell of seared flesh quickly filled the noses of everyone around.

"Keep up the pressure, they are exhausted. And keep that bitch alive; I want to fuck her when this is over." a particularly ugly man shouted from the back. He was well dressed in silver trimmed shinobi gear. Although said gear was struggling to contain his portly frame. On his bald forehead was a scratched out Iwa headband. Clenched in his teeth was a large cigar as he sneered at the two cloaked shinobi. "I'm going to be rich off your corpses." He lazily weaved hand signs.

"Earth style: rocky stomp." Sure to his claim, he stomped the ground, causing it to shake. Forcing the outnumbered side to jump back as large cracks opened up in the road before them. This earned a hearty laugh out of the nukenin. "See, they aren't using their fancy jutsu. Do not fear these bitches."

Outnumbered five to one, the two ninja steeled themselves to the oncoming battle. The woman quickly retrieved her wakizashi. The last jutsu left her light headed, which was the first indication of chakra fatigue. Nine of their remaining opponents may have been older than them, but their trained skill was considerably weaker than the sword wielding ninja. In fact, had they been on top form instead of tired, the odds may be still in their favour, despite the numbers advantage. Only three had scratched out headbands, the large one included, indicating at least they were decent enough to have been part of a shinobi force. The rest could only be described as petty criminals, greedy from the money that was supposedly above their heads.

Upon a wave of the nukenin's hand, a small chasm erupted in the road, causing five of the ten bandits to jump and engage the two defenders. Another summon only this time was spear. He thrust with his left arm, while the jumping opponent had her guard lowered, the spear should have skewered her. Instead, just at the wrong moment a lapse in the chakra flow caused the spear to de-summon in a large poof of smoke.

Fortunately, this was still enough to make the woman jump back in fear and fall down into the crack. Not a far drop but took her out of the combat until she could climb out. The one-eyed ninja was now out of position and leaned back to narrowly avoid a kunai being slashed across his face. Grabbing the outstretched arm he pulled the bandit onto his sword. Coughing up both his blood and his life before falling to the way-side. Pulling the katana out of the cadavers' chest in time to parry the oncoming blade of a third attacker.

The woman ally was not faring so well. A surprise spike made of rock had forced her to dodge but right into the swing of an unfeeling sword blade. The swing started low and struck her hip. There, it sliced upwards through her left flank and exited just under her armpit. Fortunately, the wound was not deep nor fatal, but instead cut like a fillet o' fish just under the flesh. Her body felt the white hot pain caused by the merciless steel.

"-Fukushi!-" She screamed as her body fell onto the floor in an ungraceful heap.

"-Monica? Shit!-" Fukushi kicked one bandit hard into the gut and summoned a kunai. He then, immediately flicked it towards the sword wielder who was threatening to decapitate the orange haired girl with the finishing stroke of his attack. If he was a second faster she would have been spared of the blow, but Fukushi's kunai slid into the neck of the attacker just as the sword reached her flesh for the second time. This time she was cut from her left collarbone to under her ear. Pain like fire sapped the last of her energy. Monica wanted to get up, she rolled to her front and managed to get to her knees as blood freely flowed to the road beneath her. Fukushi meanwhile wasted no time, raising his left hand to his face in the half-seal of the ram, and 'activated' the kunai sending a bolt of electricity coursing through the swordsman, sending him screaming to his death. The one-eyed shinobi jumped to the side of his fallen comrade. Just the pain and exhaustion finally over came her as she rolled slowly onto her back to be able to see her fate. Her vision was darkening as colour had already leeched from the world. Fukushi finished more hand seals and threw a set of four kunai onto the floor. A yellow wall of crackling yellow energy was erected and in good time. Projectiles ricochet off the wall with violent flashes of lightning.

Another hearty laugh echoed through the battle. "Give up now, and I'll make your death quick if you make it easy for me." As he spoke the shield collapsed revealing a young adult, half his face in stained bandages. His last jutsu only prevented the inevitable. On one knee and gasping for breath, he used his sword as a prop and slowly forced himself to stand. He looked at his friend who was now unconscious and in a pool of her own blood. Breathe in. Breathe out. He opened his eyes and took a guard position with his weapon in front.

"Leaf! Hurricane!" A green blur shot past Fukushi and ploughed through one of the bandits.

"Rasengan!" An orange blue came from the trees, and immediately dispersed a cluster of them from the other side of the split road.

"Cha!" A pink blur punched the cocky leader of the bandit group with such force that even that mountain of a man was knocked up the road, and into a heap.

"Eight-trigrams, one-hundred and thirty-two palms." A seemingly calm woman in a purple jacket stood off to once side, immediately launching at her neared target. Each succession of the gentle-fist she changed target and left the previous target in a heap with several chakra points closed off.

This left a fifth member who did not use any jutsu, but instead calmly walked into the middle of the battle and watched it unfold. His hands in the pockets. The trio of genin did not partake, but instead set up defensive positions around Monica and Fukushi in case one managed to slip past the combined efforts of the leaf jonin.

The battle, if it could be called as such, lasted only for a minute longer as the big nukenin was seen off with what was left of his group. He would have been captured for sure, but a whistle from Sikamaru called back the four jonin.

"We can't let him get away. He should be taken in for attacking these travelers." Naruto burst out, obviously discontent with the call to regroup.

"Not our mission Naruto." Came the reply from the Nara head.

"This is most un-youthful. We should bring such a bad man to justice. Those two defended themselves admirably but ten against two is not what I would call honourable."

"You can if you like. You're not my team. But please allow us to finish our job and we can help you tidy up lose ends if you like."

"Of course, my friend."

"Can we at least heal the travelers? They looked badly injured." Sakura asked.

"Oh yeah, they were covered in blood." Naruto closed his eyes in concentration as he placed his arms to the back of his head.

"Y-yeah the boy was p-protecting his f-friend." The group only arrived to see just as the shield took the combined force of projectiles and collapsed. They were making their plans of attack just as Fukushi was slowly standing up to face his opponents. From their perspective, they saw a group of thugs who had bitten off something tougher than they had initially expected.

"Erm... Lee-sensei." Dentsu spoke up, taking courage to interrupt the older jonin. The two travellers... they err... ran off." The tai-jutsu trainee indicated the pool of blood and the lack of the two cloaked figures.

"Wait why did they run? They won't survive without medical attention." Sakura grew worried for their rescued charges. "We have to find them."

"Lee can find them, they can't have gone far. We still have a mission to do. I know this is a drag but we are working for Iwa and I am not sure if they are more lenient towards their ninja deviating from missions. Look if they are as injured as you say they are, they need a hospital. Not a field medic. Lee can get them to Iwagakure fast enough. I take it the estate is down this road and up the next valley?" Shikamaru spoke as if he had all the variables accounted for. It made sense for Lee to get them to hospital and for their mission to be done with as fast as possible.

"Yes, that is correct. My legs are over flowing with youth I'll get them to safety before the day is out." Lee proudly stated.

Shikamaru looked at his team before sighing heavily. "Naruto use a clone to get some Iwa ninjas to clean this mess up. Sooner we can get this done the sooner we can help search for those missing travelers." He closed his eyed and mentally filed away all the information he had learned from that encounter. However, the feeling of dread at tugged at his heart.


	3. Chapter III A Noble Attraction!

**Another new chapter, please rate/fav/review etc etc**

 **Thank you Missrach.**

His legs burned from over use. Lungs felt like iron was grating against his flesh and cutting the air short. The one-eyed figure was darting from tree to tree carrying the unconscious red-head in his arms. Trying to get as much distance as he could before stopping. Powering through pain and concentrating even as his head grew light from the pain. Subtlety thrown to the wind after he misjudged a jump and painfully launched himself behind a large tree on the edge of a small rice paddy. Assuming hostiles, he took a few deep breaths and looked around the tree, careful that his cargo did not accidently expose his position. There were a few buildings around the paddy, perhaps he could hide until the coast is clear. Fukushi mentally prepared his body into overdrive and in a few chakra-aided leaps, he was by the door. Subtlety be damned, he kicked in the door and found the nearest flat surface to lay Monica down; a table with a vase complete with freshly cut flowers. A quick swipe saw the vase smash to the floor.

Coughing some blood up and biting back the pain from his damaged calf muscles. He weaved hand signs until a banner of bright yellow chakra gleamed. It was a similar design to a storage scroll, albeit with alterations which allowed whatever he summoned to come in reality without the physical need for a scroll. With a puff of smoke, a basic pouch filled with medial equipment eventually revealed itself. First, he unraveled a small scroll and placed his hand on top of the fuuinjutsu. The paper crumpled, the lightning chakra a yellow glow that appeared to leave the page and absorb into the exhausted man.

Wiping his brow, Fukushi channeled his newly absorbed chakra into his left hand until his fingers glowed hot as a form of chakra blade. However, this was a method much less refined in the medical profession as he proceeded to cauterise the wound. He was grateful for two things currently. First, the injuries were not fatal; she was still breathing. Secondly, that she was unconscious as he literally melted her flesh until the skin fused and the bleeding stopped.

"What the fuck are you doing in my house?" A loud voice startled the shinobi, who immediately drew his katana and turned, expecting an attack. He saw a man appearing to be in his late thirties or forties armed with a pitchfork and a wife who screamed from the sudden killing intent. Realising that they were probably just defending their home, Fukushi lowered his sword.

"Please, I have to heal her." No doubt the two farmers felt they were in too deep. At first they were expecting some thieves raiding their home, but instead in front of them stood a young man who was probably even younger than their own eldest son. He happened to be coated in blood and had badly wrapped bandages around his face, also coated in blood. He had the look of desperation, and the way he was still catching his breath suggested he was still in danger.

Fukushi and the farmer locked eyes at each other. A mental battle of wills but it was easy to notice the teenager was searching for other threats. Listening as much as remaining silent. Subconsciously his left hand was still guarding the girl ready to move her should the situation fall dire once more.

"I err mn... should I?" The farmers wife asked her husband.

"Yeah. Help them dear. They are just kids." The pair were a mix of horrified and saddened by the shock they received.

"I'll get a bowl of water." She rushed passed and outside the cracked door.

"Once you're patched up I want you to be... Oh fuck." The farmer watched as the katana clattered to the floor and the ninja in front of him collapsed into a heap from exhaustion.

* * *

Across the landscape although not a million miles away team Shikamaru was walking in standard formation; Hinata in front and Naruto at the back to maximise their strategic advantages should another bandit attack happen. Although, as they walked in single file down the road, they steadily walked closer together and within comfortable taking distance.

"Y-you think we did the right thing b-back there Shikamaru?" Hinata looked over her shoulder and asked the head Nara.

He sighed. "They were civilians. They lacked headbands, but appeared capable. They just had the unfortunate luck of being jumped." He spoke with a flat tone. "Lee and his genin should have no trouble finding them." While capable was the word, mere civilians would have fallen without bandits resorting to jutsu. Of course he concluded that there was the possibility that they played with their prey. To give them just enough hope and then watch as they snuff it out.

"Yeah, we did the right thing and saved them anyway right, Sakura?" Naruto added.

"Yeah exactly. It was a shame they ran, but I don't blame them."

"So, don't worry. We did our bit, just as Shikamaru said, and now we can find out who has been targeting ANBU." He flashed Hinata a smile, looking away to hide a small blush.

"Troublesome that they have to live so far away. I think we turn right here and up the valley."

"You would have thought these mansions were easier to find." Naruto got the last line in as they turned up a smaller and quieter path through the steep sided valley. After another hour of walking and it soon became painfully obvious how wealthy the Fritushi family were. The path neatened up with cut grass to either side. Giant redwoods lined each side of the track. Standing very tall and proud, more-so than the already tall pine trees in the forest around. They eventually exited through an archway and into a clearing, where up the bank the four walls of the compound were visible. The walls were half white-washed stone and half wooden panels and to each corner was a tower where guards were visible. Behind that, the grand house itself stood proudly in the middle of it all. In a very imperial castle fashion, it boasted dark wood and red terracotta tiles. Off to the left and to the right were several rice paddies, assumed to feed the guards stationed here.

Shikamaru was first to knock on the large entranceway. The double doors spanned the track-way and was slightly taller than the surrounding walls.

"We are not accepting visitors." A gruff but bored sounding voice commanded from the other side.

"We're not visiting. We are shinobi coming to talk to you about your late master."

"Ah F..." The rest was hushed by some whispering and sure enough the guard yielded. A loud clunk could be heard while someone struggled with something. The gate swung open revealing an older lady with hair just starting to turn grey. Aside from that, she looked very lively despite wearing all black attire. There was a well dressed man standing behind her, and an armed soldier with a single eyepatch covering his right eye.

"Our humble apologies Mr Shinobi. We've been getting some unsavoury visitors recently." The elderly woman remarked.

"It's quite alright, unfortunately we may be considered unsavoury in some light as well." Hinata spoke up, assuming her status as a diplomat of sorts. Something Shikamaru agreed to as the Nara name seldom travelled beyond the Land of Fire. But with some hope, the Hyuuga name would have been known.

"I see, it's about my late husband. Well I am honoured that a Hyuuga has come to deal with this mess. Come in, I'll have some tea served."

They followed the woman into the mansion. Hinata was the only member of the team used to such luxury, while Naruto ironically came at a close second. Being a war hero had meant several of the noble class had suddenly taken interest in the Uzumaki name. This left Shikamaru and Sakura, Shikamaru who lived from a more modest clan, important to the Leaf, but not to much in the wider world. He was curious about all the trinkets and decorations that adorned the interior of the mansion. Sakura, on the other hand, came from a civilian family and was simply amazed over how beautiful the building was. She sometimes dreamed of luxury when she was younger, and this was how she would picture it in her head as she slept.

In the parlour room, the team sat. Hinata sat next to Naruto, and Shikamaru next to Sakura, while lady Fritushi took a seat in an armchair. The room had two of its walls covered in large windows, adorned with equally ornate plum curtains, complete with silver straps to keep the fabric in place The was also a grand fireplace with a mirror resting above the mantelpiece and a piano in the corner by the two windows. Aside from the few items of furniture, the walls were also covered in paintings and decorated wall-paper. Sakura was the only one to notice Hinata nudging Naruto and quickly shooting a 'behave' look. Naruto complied and sat up straight and folded himself to look as neat as Hinata was. Sakura did not know that on previous missions between Hinata and Naruto, that Naruto had received torturous training off Hinata's father and clearly Hinata had managed to rein in the blond during such moments. Naruto on the other hand was clearly a little uncomfortable, as he always felt out of place in such environments and preferred his cosy apartment to such a large building.

"So." The older woman spoke, clearing the silence with her sharp introduction. "Before we begin, Lady Hyuuga and Lord Uzumaki, who are your compatriots?" Even Shikamaru looked at the orange-clad ninja with curiosity.

"Sorry to interrupt. but Lord?"

"Oh you don't know? Mr. Uzumaki is well known amongst the nobles, or anyone who keeps tabs of anyone of his caliber." She raised her hand to her mouth as if she had accidently spilled some secret.

"Heh, sorry for not telling you. I don't really like titles. They make me feel uncomfortable and such, ya know?" Naruto scratched the back of his head. "Please, Naruto is just fine." At this point Shikamaru and Sakura were wondering who was this person in Naruto's body, or were staring at him as such.

"To be fair Sakura, he is the last from the Uzumaki clan." Shikamaru added. "It would have been inevitable since he gained so much fame since the war." Likewise Sakura also received much fame but that would remain local to Konoha. No longer was her family considered civilian but instead a newly minted clan with only her immediate family present.

"It would help with our missions if he had status, considering the people we've been around. These are our comrades, Sakura Haruno, and Lord Shikamaru Nara." Hinata introduced before taking a quiet sigh. This time it was Naruto who subtly nudged Hinata as a sign of comfort. He knew how hard it was for her to speak without stuttering, and especially when in the company of someone they needed good impressions for. Yet, he was still clueless of how much she loved him.

"It is a pleasure to meet the four of you. Interesting that Iwa sent Leaf Ninja, when it was their ANBU who were killed defending my husband."

"Just part of our mission." Shikamaru dismissed vaguely.

"Of course, the world of shinobi works in mysterious ways. Pleasantries aside, is there anything I can do for you?" Her tone became cold after denied any sort of information. Shikamaru knew better than to reveal details to the mission. He decided she did not need to know about the politics involved in their mission.

"We shall get to the point. Do you know about this 'page,' and if you do, do you still have it?"

"Ah the motive behind my late husbands death. Yes. I still have it, but no, I won't give it to you. It's much too valuable and he was a fool to rely on Iwa shinobi."

"We believe you are in danger because of it. Whoever was willing to kill your husband will clearly not stop there and come after you." Naruto spoke up.

"That's quite alright. My son should be arriving tomorrow to collect it. You have nothing to fear, shinobi."

"At least make sure you're safe for one night."

"And be in debt? I'd rather not." The lady of the house stood up and bowed politely. "If all you want is that page, then I recommend you raise the funds to purchase it."

Naruto leaped up and looked like he was about to explode, but then hesitated and took a deep breath and bowed in return. "While I admit being in debt never feels great, I disagree with putting money before your safety. However, if this is your wish, we shall take our leave." This left everyone shocked, but without voicing their surprise they also stood up to leave. The four ninja left in single file and kept appearance even as they left the compound. Sakura was planning on a string of questions, but as soon as they re-entered the forest both Naruto and to a lesser extent, Hinata let out a heavy sigh.

"Man I hate nobl... err apart from you Hinata."

"I-it's a-alright. you did w-well." She pressed for forefingers together while she complemented the blond.

"You did too, not one stutter." He grinned at her.

"What the hell was all that Naruto!?" Sakura shouted, annoyed she couldn't get the first word in. Naruto felt like he was getting knocked over by her voice alone.

"Alright, alright. I'm sorry I never said anything. Apparently, if I want to take the Hokage position seriously, I needed to learn to talk to them."

"But you have the subtlety of an elephant."

"M-my father has been helping." Hinata interjected.

"Idiot. I thought someone had possessed you." Sakura punched Naruto on the shoulder, making him feign injury for comical relief.

"It's a shame she wasn't much help, though. So, what now?" Naruto answered, running his shoulder.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that. She clearly does not like Iwagakure, so we can find out more as soon as the Kumo ninjas find something from this Ro alliance. In the meantime, we can find Lee and maybe find out from the merchant quarters why this page was so valuable. Troublesome. I wish she was more of a showy rich widow than a stingy one. Anyway, we should get back, I can get a warrant from the Tsuchikage."

"Sounds like a plan to me." Naruto gave a thumbs up before walking side by side with Hinata and away with their party.

* * *

Meanwhile, Lady Fritushi watched the shinobi exit, and sighed heavily. The great villages were already snooping. She softly cursed that Chuno was stupid enough to hire shinobi. It had sealed her fate.

"Mother, our associates have managed to lose the foreigners. Given their persistence, they will attack any day now. If you would just join the alliance, I could get you protection." A man walked in wearing charcoal coloured robes with bright white bandages wrapped around the lower half of his face to keep his identity difficult to trace. He also wore a Maroon coloured flak jacket, like Iwa shinobi, but unlike those ninja, he held a headband in his left hand. The symbol was one of bundled sticks. As if he was expecting some danger, he slowly walked over to the lady of the house.

"Join those glorified terrorists? Even those shinobi seem preferable. I have over one hundred guards on these premises."

The man raised the headband to his face as he studied the symbol of Ro in front of him.

"I'm sorry..."

"What for? It's just a disagreement of ideas." She calmly spoke, her guard lowered as her son approached her.

"I have to prove myself."

"To those? Dear, I thought they only valued money and it's all you're good for."

"I'm sorry." He repeated, as he plunged a knife into the back of his own mother. She just froze and silently fell back into his arms. She allowed death to come easily and was gone before she could be laid down onto the floor. "We just... couldn't afford lose ends... I had to... forgive me"

"We should set up for our guests. You know where she keeps that page?" A new man entered, a larger man with a large sword strapped to his back. He was wrapped in a collection of camouflage, leather, and cloth which bulked his body out and hid the armour he wore under it. The other feature about this man was he did not wear the headband of a bundle of sticks, but a scratched out Iwa headband. It rested on his forehead and right above a pair of dark eyes, which just gazed on without emotion or feeling. Telling what this man was thinking would be near impossible.

The now last member of the Fritushi nodded and stood up after carefully resting his mother in a 'comfortable' position on the floor.

"We are going to need to be careful if they managed to get away. Those bastards recover fast."

The Iwa Nuknin nodded in agreement. "Regardless they've been on the run for some time now. They won't have the fancier tricks up their sleeves."

"You sound confident." The Ro shinobi took one last look at his mother and dusting himself down. Allowing himself to shed just one tear but no more. "He has killed over forty of us in the last week alone."

"Bah they are just cannon fodder. Prove to me that you are more than just a mere cow ripe for the slaughter."

"Right, Sensei."

* * *

Monica woke with a start. Quickly remembering, albeit partly through reflex, that she was in a hostile place and immediately summoned a kunai before she even had the chance to take in her surroundings. Such a motion would have been fine, if a little abrupt, if she was not injured. Her left flank lit up like fire, like her flesh being slowly pulled apart and it gave her new waves of pain. She grunted and clutched her side and breathed heavily in an attempted to calm the agony. Looking around she realised she was laying on a rug in front of a fire and right next to Fukushi. Said teenager was sitting cross legged and appeared to be asleep as his eye was closed. He looked peaceful and as still as stone. His eye opened and he took a deep breath in.

"-Rest, you'll need your strength.-" The familiar male voice told her. The orange haired girl allowed her kunai to de-summon before replying to him.

"-What about you? You have not slept in days.-"

"-When we get out of here. It's not safe here and there are still a couple pages left. Now please, I need to concentrate.-" Even if Monica asked anything more, her partner was dead to the world. She knew what he was doing. Meditation; the ability to generate chakra at a faster rate. Although, she could only guess at how much strain he was putting on his body and she was starting to worry about. To other shinobi, they would easily recognise the similar effects of soldier pills.

"What was he saying?" A feminine voice startled Monica and caused another flash of pain to ricochet through her body.

"It's ok, this is our house you're in." The woman flinched as well expecting sudden danger.

Monica smile and bowed her a little. "Thank you for hiding us. We will only be a few hours. But, please let us rest." She laid herself back down. Unlike her partner, she rarely used meditation as she was adept enough to mould additional chakra from it. So, she usually took to conventional rest. The room they stayed in was pleasant. Compared to sleeping outside or even not sleeping but still trapped outside had been rough on their bodies. However this experience had tempered their bodies to be very resilient which spoke volumes in their survivability.

However, resilience was not immunity. A fact very much real to the red-head as she silently looked over to her partner. His left eye destroyed because his fatigue made him too slow to dodge or block the cutting edge of a sword. They would have been outmatched there and then had the man not gloated about landing a deciding strike on the 'lightning demon' as his nickname was. The gloat allow for Monica to cut his arm off but he retreated before anything else could be decided.

Now she was injured herself and worry flooded her heart just as doubt flooded her mind. She understood that unless something changes they will be whittled down and inevitably killed. Something she could not quite swallow. A world without him, even if it was for a moment should she perish too.


	4. Chapter IV A Fatal Attraction!

**Yikes sorry totally was too busy for last Sunday... deadline on Friday but here is the next chapter. Hope you enjoy the story so far, please review your opinions. another chapter of the woodsman is also on the way but dissertation is a thing... a big scary thing...**

 **Thank you Missrach you're seriously helping me make the story readable.**

Naruto had woken up to Shikamaru prodding him. Turned out sifting through the markets took a very long time as many merchants were reluctant to provide much information on foreign ninja. At first, his musings were gentle. Not getting anywhere, he sighed. He ended up punching Naruto's shoulder to wake up the blond mess as he was spread all over the bed. Naruto stirred.

"What was that for?" A groggy voice of a not-so-morning-Naruto relied to Shikamaru.

"Get up, are leaving soon." Naruto rolled out of bed, literally, and fell to the floor with a thud. Sleepily, he began hopping around, getting dressed, groaning and cursing all the way. While Shikamaru calmly set about getting cleaned and dressed, lamenting irritation about how lazy Naruto still is after everything they have been through. This will be a drag.

Outside their room was the small corridor that housed the boys' room in between two flights of stairs. There was one flight going up to where the girls' slept, and the other flight lowered to the lobby room of the hotel. Sakura was walking down the stairs when she caught Hinata staring at the wall with her Byakugan in use, and visible on her face. The bluenette did not realise that she was caught, instead, continuing to stare at the wall. When Sakura made her presence known, she was smiling, about to bound out greetings, until she realised exactly what Hinata was trying to do.

"Hinata, what are you doing?" Sakura blushed. She already had an idea of what the girl was up to.

Hinata spun around, also blushing and spoke in a high-pitched, squeaky voice.

"I err w-was, s-weeing if the b-boys urm w-were err awake?"

Sakura sighed and walked passed Hinata to get downstairs. As she passed she spoke, "You know, you're a worse liar than Naruto." She gave Hinata a smirk, and then left her.

Hinata quickly decided being caught once was enough, and followed Sakura to wait for the boys.

After a few minutes, everyone in the squad was downstairs and eating a small breakfast of toast. Shikamaru was looking up a map of the area he was given. The café area was quiet as would be expected this early in the morning, wooden stools still on top of most of the tables. The only other person awake was a young man, only somewhat older than the ninja present. He was cleaning up the kitchen, which was separated by a wall and an open door to the dining hall.

"One hour run I think, now that we know the way there."

"Why in such a rush, Shikamaru?" Naruto replied sleepily, as he was still waking up.

"I don't like this. I've been trying to figure out why these attacks are occurring, what's new and what's old. Maybe I might know more if I could find out what this paper was that Fritushi mentioned. We only just found out that it's worth a lot, and it only appeared in the markets for a brief time. Rarely does a page come up. That in itself is motivation enough, but these pages were all connected to the Ro Alliance." Shikamaru spoke in a monotone. "This is becoming too much of a drag."

With the dark undertone added to breakfast, the four shinobi finished up in silence and headed to the main gate. The main gate headed back down to the valley below, which was coated in pine trees. It was obvious where the main road lay; a barren streak of path cut the valley in two and lead off further and further into the mountains. Once, perhaps, the hidden villages were true to their name, but now it was common knowledge where they all are. Even if there were new hidden villages, the numerous spy networks would quickly challenge their hidden status. Once they entered the forested outskirts of Iwa, team Shikamaru took to the trees. As ninja of the leaf, this was their speciality, and therefore could make light work of the terrain.

"Is that smoke?" Sakura asked. They had cut a few corners, but were essentially travelling alongside the single track that lead to the manor house.

"Byakugan!" Hinata called as she concentrated ahead. "I can see a few survivors. We should hurry."

"Naruto! Send a clone back to warn the Tsuchikage that the Fritushi estate was attacked," Shikamaru commanded. He was confused over the delay. It has almost been a week since the ANBU and Chuno Fritushi were killed. So why attack now? He was banking that the attacker had already got what he wanted. Blind rage? Revenge? No, that wouldn't explain it. Something else had to have intervened.

The shinobi quickened their approach. So fast that to a normal civilian, their motion would have gone unnoticed. In no time, they stood in front of the destruction. Both the gateway and the front door were blasted wide open. Guards were scattered around the garden. The four walked in with wide eyes. Bodies were burnt and cut up, sometimes both. The scene was one of total annihilation. (This paragraph was perfect! Great writing so far!)

"What the hell happened here?" Naruto called out.

"B-byakugan" Hinata quietly spoke out. She had to force herself to look with her eyes, trying her hardest to keep her stomach down. She scanned around seeing all the empty husks and parts of bodies scattered around, void of chakra. Her initiative prompted Sakura and Naruto to help find any guards who were still alive although they were already reluctant to search.

"Hey, Kurama, can you help me here? Is anyone alive?" Naruto whispered almost to himself, as if he was worried his voice would shatter the silence that cloaked the area.

"Hmph. It's difficult to tell one from another. The whole estate stinks of death and hate and fear." Kurama replied in a low growl. "Try over there." Naruto instinctively turned to face the palisade walls that supposedly protected the compound from attack. There was a pile of wood which presumably used to be some sort of tower or lookout. It was difficult for Naruto to really know, because the pile of wood was damaged beyond recognition.

"Hey guys! This one is still conscious." Naruto called out after a few minutes of searching the charred wood. Sakura rushed to him. Shikamaru also approached, slowly, as if the death around him weighed him down. As Shikamaru approached, the impaled man looked up at him. He didn't speak because his lungs were punctured by the wooden shrapnel embedded in his chest, but he did the best he could to give Shikamaru an unspoken message with his eyes.

"We need a full hospital! I-I don't know what I can do!? It's too much!" Sakura spoke with tears rolling down her eyes, as her medical jutsu was proving ineffective to the wound.

"Reinforcements should be coming soon." Naruto confirmed as his clone must have delivered the message, the major benefit to using clones as the ability to retain memories.

"N-Naruto, I found someone else. He's hiding around the building." Hinata called out, and Naruto, along with Shikamaru, ran to where Hinata was pointing. The two shinobi moved aside some fallen timber to find a man in a fetal position with his eyes closed, and hands covering his ears. The two boys looked at each other, as the man rambled on about laughter. Naruto touched the man causing him to immediately scream, inadvertently causing Naruto fall back. He looked around terrified that he was found.

"I need you to calm down." Shikamaru said as he squatted down next to the man, but he ignored him.

"T-they're gone, it's day? I l-lived, why?" He started sobbing into his hands.

"What happened?" Shikamaru repeated.

"They a-attacked. W-we were-re no m-match. Oh god, why didn't we have any j-jutsu..?" The man cried out, then suddenly stopping as if he remembered something. "The laughter. C-can't get it out of, my h-h-h-head." He drew out a knife and pointed at his stomach. Naruto was forced to jump in and knock the man out with a swift kick. Normally, Shikamaru would have disapproved but judging by what the man was about to do; Naruto probably had the right idea.

"I'm going to find this asshole. He's killed too many people. I need to stop him. We have to stop him."

Shikamaru punched him on the dhoulder. "Look around, idiot! We still don't know what he can do. Some of these people did not even drawn their weapons before they died. What do you think would happen to us if we were as unprepared as these guards?" Shikamaru stared Naruto down with his frustration reaching its peak. He took a deep breath. One piece of information is useful. It's certainly a 'they', and not a single man. Just as he was about to share this with Naruto, a pair of Iwa medics appeared around the corner.

"Did you find any more survivors?" A young woman asked, sounding doubtful that anyone was alive at this point.

"Yeah, but we had to knock him out." Naruto replied trying to keep his anger down as well.

The two Ninja walked back to the entrance with Shikamaru talking. "Look, I understand your anger, but if we do this wrong we will end up dead. ANBU, shinobi, even unarmed guards are targeted by them. So please, try not to rush into this one, not until we know what he is capable of. Then, we can take revenge for the sake of all these people." He gave a heavy sigh. "Look I know you are capable. I just want to make an excuse... Little rusty you know."

Sakura was slumped against the remains of the gateway. She had exhausted herself trying to save as many as she could, but many of her attempts had failed. Hinata was still directing the new arrivals to any guards still alive. They were few and far between, but the kunoichi had to push themselves to the limit. Any hesitation, and someone else was going to die.

"Shall we search inside to find out who he was targeting?" Shikamaru suggested. Naruto appeared to be too lost in thought to talk back. They both entered the building. They were immediately met with scorched walls and carpet. A few guards were scattered here and there and the smell of burnt flesh hung as thick as the smoke still filling the air inside. It stung the two shinobis' eyes as they wondered from room to room.

One particular body caught Shikamaru's eye; the elderly woman they spoke to yesterday. He nudged Naruto, who was looking at some perpendicular scratches in the wall.

"Naruto, what's strange about her body?" He received confusion, with a look of, 'why are you asking me?.'

"She is erm... urr... Looking like she's asleep."

"Exactly. You are getting smarter, finally." Shikamaru sent a sly remark and a quick smirk to say he meant well.

"Maybe if you give me a chance."

"Alright. Why is she like this, then?"

Naruto closed his eyes in concentration. The only sound that came from him was a long 'hmm'. While it was true that he usually did this to sound more intelligent than he actually was, the blond had an idea for once. "Someone else killed her. But who?"

"I don't know, but whoever killed her clearly respected her and her alone. Let's keep looking. Perhaps we can find other clues. I can honestly say I was not expecting this."

The pair continued to explore the downstairs, only to reveal that the battle must have continued upstairs, as most of the rooms appeared untouched. Slowly, the Nara and Uzumaki heads walked up the main staircase, littered with projectiles like kunai, shurikens, and arrows. As they walked they could hear the sickly crunch of broken glass under their feet. There was seldom any blood as most of the bodies were scorched dry. Once they reached upstairs, they were met with worse destruction than they expected. Holes in the partitioning walls, and in places the roof had caved in, had filled the floor with debris.

"At least the house was well built," Naruto dryly commented. "It looked like a huge battle took place up here."

"I find it odd... This much damage from a security team who did not have any jutsu users. Remember that guy outside? He told us they were outmatched."

"What about him?" Naruto pointed at the bottom of the corridor, and they saw a shinobi which looked like he belonged to Iwa. He wore a maroon coloured flak jacket, with brown shinobi gear, to help camouflage him in the rocky terrain. Shikamaru furrowed his brow. The dead man was slumped over with several puncture wounds. Slight wisps of smoke still escaped his body. The black haired shinobi walked down the corridor, slowly stepping over broken bits of wood. Naruto approached the dead ninja and knelt in front of him. He noticed something. The headband clearly didn't possess the same insignia that belonged to Iwa.

"Shikamaru, which village bares this symbol?" It looked like a group of lines tied together.

"Hm? I thought you would know, Mr. Political." Shikamaru shot. He was standing behind Naruto and soaking up all the information in front of him.

"Heh." A grim laugh caught both shinobi's attention, and they immediately turned their heads towards the mysterious voice. "They send Leaf shinobi to clean up?"

Said leaf shinobi saw some loose rubble move slightly. That's where the voice was, but since they could not see the man to whom the voice belonged to…Shit! That means they're trapped!

"We'll get you out, just hold on!" Naruto was quick to his feet, and was already shifting timbers off the injured man.

"Still, we were caught off guard.. It didn't help that the security turned on us.. Those fuck-wits were meant to distract them not us."

"What do you mean by them?" Shikamaru took an uneasy step back.

"Heh..." The man painfully chuckled to himself before coughing up some blood. Internal bleeding. That's not good. "It would have been nice to have revenge on Iwa shinobi. Or that bastard lightning demon."

As Naruto pulled another beam of wood off the man, he noticed the scratched out headband. Upon hearing the dreaded hiss of explosive tags, Naruto channeled immense chakra to his feet, and jumped out of the room. Shikamaru had the same idea. The man just laughed at their attempts to escape.

"I guess you'll have to do."

A deafening bang echoed throughout the entire forest and surrounding mountains. Birds for many miles around suddenly took flight as half of the manor house exploded outwards, sending large boulders of summoned rock to rain down along with parts of the once standing building. What was left of the entire left half of the mansion suddenly collapsed in onto itself sending up a lot of dust. Naturally few people stood to watch the spectacle as Hinata and Sakura quickly got the medics out of harms way, and even provided some defensive jutsu.

Breathing heavily, Sakura looked to Hinata. "That explosion had earth chakra infused into it."

Hinata realised that there was not supposed to be anyone wielding earth chakra, friend or foe. Unless of course they had faulty data.

"Naruto, please be alright." She quietly prayed.

Fortunately, her prayers were already answered. Naruto was laying on the floor next to Shikamaru after being catapulted down to the safe side of the house.

"Never a dull moment with you is there, kid?" Kurama's voice echoed through Naruto's head, probably quite shaken by the explosion as he experienced it through Naruto's senses.

Shikamaru got up and checked to see if his hair was still in his perfect ponytail. "Wow that blew out some cobwebs, pun intended. I just got an idea and we should get going."

"You don't want to check the rest of the house?" Naruto suggested.

"Nah, that'll just be a drag. Whoever they were clearly got their asses kicked. We'd be better off back at Iwagakura asking more questions."

The pair slowly emerged from the dust that was still in the air from the explosion. For Naruto and Shikamaru, all they had to do was climb down the rubble to appear at the main entrance, but the sheen of fine powder scattered about prevented anyone from seeing past. The pair sat on the porch to the house to think over the carnage. Dead bodies were being laid out in front of them by the contingency of medics from Iwa. Kurotsuchi was standing in the middle of the medics organising logistics. She was putting on a brave face, even to a trained shinobi. Despite this, it was easy to tell she was worried and shocked over the sheer brutality. After a small chat with Hinata about the guards, she turned and approached Naruto and Shikamaru. She was tired and rubbing her eyes to massage the strain from them.

"A-are you two alright? Did you get hurt, N-Naruto?"

"Not even a scratch." The guy was pretty obvious to the undertones in her question, of course he would have been fine from harm but she was checking because she cared deeply. Naruto replied, and Hinata let out an obvious and heavy sigh. She had been holding her breath in without realising it.

"Six guards survived in the end, out of-of-of the s-seventy." She looked down as she gave the news to Naruto and Shikamaru.

"Thank you, Hinata. You did an awesome job. Hope your eyes are alright." Naruto spoke and gave a short smile; instantly uplifting Hinata who returned the smile. Gazing up at the blond for a brief moment.

"Did you find anything?" Hinata replied.

Shikamaru nodded and looked up at a certain pinkette. "Hey, Sakura?"

"Yeah?" She called over, and got up to get closer.

"Do these injuries match what were we expecting?"

Sakura looked down at her feet. "In around half of them, yes."

"But."

"Some have crushing injuries, and there are still projectiles imbedded in a few others. Shurikens mostly."

"I think there was something else going on here, and they were interrupted by our targets. From what that guy said before he tried to blow us up, I reckon they were also after our targets. That suggests they are working alone. We will have to confirm it. But there is a good chance that they were fighting against Ro Alliance; the other organisation linked to these pages."

"But why was there fighting before our targets reached us?" Sakura asked.

"We found lady Fritushi. She had been killed, but laid down respectably. My guess is the security detail did not take too kindly to that." Shikamaru sighed. "We should confirm their allegiance first, and their relationship with the Ro Alliance."

"Ano, y-you said there was a reason for them to take a w-week to attack." Hinata asked. "Maybe the Ro Alliance?"

"It would fit." Sakura added.

"Almost too well." Shikamaru mused. "Any more questions? I think we should get back and see what the others have found out."

"How come we aren't finding weapons from our targets?" Naruto asked. "I mean, there are bodies with numerous kunai wounds, but no kunai. The ones we can see look discarded, not used, and there are far too many to carry. Unless we are looking at someone like Tenten, ya know, numbers just aren't adding here."

"S-some sort of jutsu?" Hinata thought out loud while looking at her hands. "My gentile fist may not penetrate the skin, but maybe they use something similar that does leave a physical wound, like a c-chidori. I don't think it's like Tenten's use of scrolls. You wouldn't waste a scroll on single weapons unless they were special and we would see c-concentrated clusters of attacks."

"Good point. Hmm." Shikamaru replied. "We may not be facing anyone visibly armed, which is why they are difficult to find. Becoming fast enough and leaving nothing behind means you don't have to be stealthy, just quick. So, we are fighting someone who is fast. What a drag."

"So how could they stay hidden for so long?" Sakura added.

"Maybe they are good at hiding?" Hinata replied. "The land of Earth doesn't have good spy c-coverage."

"You mean ambushes?" Naruto suggested. "Although, didn't that guy say something about the lightning demon?"

Shikamaru smiled. "Storms, that's how he manages not to attract immediate attention. There was one last night."

"Do you think we can get any more information out of this place?" Sakura spoke while looking around. "I don't want to be here any longer than necessary."

"I think we have enough to go on from here." Naruto and Hinata both nodded in agreement.

The air was stale with death, and they could empathise with Sakura that it made them feel uneasy. Although the compound was no longer silent thanks to the Iwa medics being present, it was stale and the team wanted to leave to catch some fresh air.

"So we are looking for someone appearing unarmed, has high level lightning and fire attacks, is certainly after that page, and may or may not be at odds with the Ro Alliance who may or may not have been here last night." Naruto counted off from his fingers as he made a mental note to remember. It was something new that Naruto did in order to remember things better after Kakashi and Tsunade hammered into his head he'll have to do better to become Hokage. The blond finished his mental note taking.

Hinata began to walk out of the estate, the rest of the team following. They felt glad to leave such devastation. As the team walked away, the evening sky darkened quickly, leaving them in the shadow of the nearby mountains. When a large crack was heard, followed by several other rumbles, echoing throughout the forest, the four ninja jumped in fright, immediately drawing their weapons.

"W-w-what was t-that?" Hinata squeaked as she was surprised by the sudden lightning. She used to be terrified of thunder when she was a kid, and while she had grown out of it, she was still unprepared. There was not a single cloud in the sky and no warning of lighting to prepare the Hyuuga. Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, as Hinata latched onto his arm for a brief moment.

"Came from this way." Naruto shouted as he saw the flash of lightning. It was distant, and lasted only for a split second, but nevertheless unusual.

"Kid, that was a spike of lightning chakra." Kurama spoke within Naruto's Mind. "Who do we know that falls under that description in the Land of Earth?"

"We should hurry. Kurama thinks it's who we've been looking for."

The team nodded to each other, channeling chakra into their legs and running as fast as possible to where the lightning struck. Naruto, as well as the others, were all thinking that they were close to the killer, because so far only one person they know could use lightning in such a way.

Within half an hour of fast tracking through the forest, they reached a road much further up the mountains than the manor house was. The team had to stop before unwittingly revealing themselves. The road was little more than a well trodden dirt path, but to the mind of a shinobi, it would make sense to use back roads to get around. There were always more of these types of roads where one could walk from end to end without seeing another soul. From the protection of the trees, they saw Yonoaka laying on his back. His great sword, equally as impressive as the man himself, had been planted deep into the earth. The team's eyes widened as they realised Yonoaka was lying in a pool of his blood, with numerous cuts and burns adorning his body. The four ninja descended to get a better look. Naruto and Hinata were on the lookout for anyone nearby. Sakura checked the body, while Shikamaru had already noticed that this was more of a struggle than all the guards at the estate put together. Trees had been felled and crators damaged the road.

"See anything? Anyone?" Shikamaru commanded.

"N-no. No one standing out." Hinata confirmed with her Byakugan.

"Damn it. We were too late. Shit! We are still a step behind!" Naruto shouted in anger, clenching his hands into tight fists out of frustration. He had seen enough death for one day.

"I found a note, Shikamaru. I think he found out something before he died." Sakura handed Shikimaru the blood-stained note.


	5. Chapter V Yonoaka's Tale!

**Wow I am really not doing this every sunday thing well... writing the next chapter of woodsman as I post this... so stick around for that.**

 **All reviews and messages are welcome :)**

 **Cheers again to Missrach. Fortunately I managed to catch your pervy 'additions', they'll come later.**

 **Yonoaka's Perpective, the morning before his death.**

Yonoaka had been spending the better part of the night, before going from village to village, to have a 'drink', and listen to the local's conversations to see if they knew anything, or had seen anything. He had overheard about the ever increasingly popular legend of the Lightning Demons, and how after a storm has brewed over the land, fresh victims are left in its wake. He understood the 'Lightning Demon' was merely a mortal man made of flesh and blood. On the contrary, the stories he'd heard just by walking around made him feel like a curse on the land. Stories for children to behave. Drunks to boast about and kids to scare others that if they weren't to do something their soul would be consumed by the otherworldly demon.

Currently, Yonoaka was spending time in one such bar, in a small farming village at the base of the numerous mountains. The bar itself was small and seemed to only cater for the locals, if the sly looks from some of the man gave him any indication. Of course, they would not dare try anything. With a shinobi headband proudly on display, and a wealth of weaponry, the mist ninja gave a 'spikey' appearance. Yonoaka smiled into his drink as he was starting to enjoy the creativity in the tales of people trying to impress one another as they drank into the night. He was about to call it a night when a young girl of about mid-twenties approached him. She wore nothing special, just in plain blue skirt and t-shirt, with only a dark grey jacket to keep her warmth

"Hey, are you a ninja? F-from other lands?" she said with concern and worry in her voice.

"I am. Is there anything you need?" He spoke in a deep strong voice but one of care which comforted her nerves and allowed her to visibly relax.

"There's a storm out. I-I think something bad will happen tonight. I've heard rumors that people have seen them walk in the mountains nearby. Could you please keep us safe?"

The man smiled. "He's a person just like you and me. We are working to catch whoever this demon is."

"I know, just, they killed my father. I know he wasn't a great man, but he never deserved death. I miss him so much, but, what if the demon comes after me?" She looked genuinely worried for her safety, not looking Yonoaka directly in the eyes as she spoke. He broke contact when she was done to return his attention to the cup of sake on the table.

"Humour me for a minute if you could, but you mentioned storms. Why is this a part of the whole demon tale?" She looked at him for once, and gave a quick thought before she replied. "Also why not the 'yellow flash'? I would have thought Iwa would be in an uproar over this."

"Well, it was a storm on the night my father never returned, and it's been happening for the past couple of months. I've heard that this is the only time they attack. As for why not the y-yellow flash... I don't know, though I think that would make things too scary." She shuddered as the collective opinion of Minato from the third shinobi war still made Iwa tremble.

"He won't attack here. If he knew I was coming, he ought to be running in fear for his life." He quickly made a mental note about this detail.

"How so, Mister?"

"I'm Yonoaka, and I fought in the great war, I have special tracking abilities. He can't hide for long." He smiled and tapped his nose as if to say he could smell his pray. To the girl, it probably meant that he simply knew something. It was doubtful she was versed in how shinobi operated.

"You fought? Wow! I've heard about many war shinobi, but I'm honoured to meet you."

"Like-wise, well thank you for talking to me. I am just on my way out."

"Oh, you can stay here, my boss has plenty of rooms."

"That's quite alright. You've given me an idea how to find him anyway."

"How so, Mister Yonoaka? But please be careful."

"I have a feeling him using the storms is not a coincidence." She looked at him as if to say 'you really aren't going to find him'. "Don't worry. I've faced scarier men than this, 'demon'." He stood up to leave the bar, and looked over his shoulder at the young lady. "I'll avenge your father if that was what you were asking."

She smiled and took a deep breath. Yonoaka may have been a big man, but he liked the idea of being someone's saviour. Almost inspired solely by Naruto, who had saved his life during the war, he doubted someone so young should, or even ought to remember it. Once he exited the building, he stopped to light a large cigar, watching the swirl of smoke in the air before the breeze took it away into the night. He took a deep breath in before he smiled again. He was feeling a wave of chakra in the air. It was faint, but it prickled his skin just enough for him to notice.

"He's close." Yonoaka muttered to himself. He waited to finish his cigar before running over the rooftops of the village. He looked and acted like a bloodhound with steam pouring out of his mouth as the temperature fell. He felt the first few drops of rain splash off his exposed skin. Each drop falling more and more frequently, until rain had fully set in. He could feel how unnatural this storm felt, and the chakra which fell along with the rain. His ability to feel radiant chakra from performed jutsu allowed him to become an effective shinobi hunter. So long as they used jutsu, he could sense where it was performed last. He knew why he came alone, because only one was needed for his hunt.

The large warrior jumped down into a clearing where the jutsu felt the strongest. This was exactly what he needed, the jutsu itself. Checkmate. He performed a string of hand signs.

"Mist style: All seeing." He announced to himself. His speciality, other than feeling chakra, was he could hone in on the user if he had a strong enough imprint of his chakra to read off. This allowed him to see exactly where his target had been until he died, and that no more of his chakra existed, or the jutsu was performed again on a different target.

He looked around where he was standing. "Hmm, this is an unusual fuuinjutsu. So those rumors were right, he has unique tricks up his sleeve." He was describing a circle of chakra with many intricate patterns, and five kunai which seemed to be a part of the circle. "So, this is how he is always able to fight in a storm. I wonder if he is egotistical enough to be the one who created the legend." Yonoaka looked around, and he saw the orange glow of is prey's chakra. It lead deeper into the forest and off into the distance, taking the most convenient path. After disabling his mist technique, Yonoaka vanished into the forest while the morning sky brightened and rain poured continuously on the Land of Earth.

He had reached an estate far too late, it appeared. Bodies and bits of the defensive wall laid strewn across the grounds. He sat from the tree tops and watched the house burn brightly with bright electric-blue fire. The place looked spectral as the blue fire illuminated the bodies and thrashed about as if their angry souls were trapped. In silence, he watched and felt the chakra from his hiding spot. A conflicting chakra full of anger, fear, and desperation would be the best guess.

His eyes widened in intrigue as he saw two figures calmly walking out of the building. The flames licked around them, but one of them had their hands in a sign and forced the fire to keep away. Once they had left, the blue flames died down at the command of one of the people who stood at the entrance to the house. The rain beating down dealt with the real fires. Yonoaka watched as the other figure who wasn't controlling the fire performed some hand signals, and a yellow banner appeared in-between his hands. In the smoke, a large book appeared and the caster grabbed it. The watching shinobi smiled knowingly as he had found his target laughably easy. How could someone be so careless? He clearly had poor training, no matter how exotic his jutsu looked. The figure inserted a piece of paper in the book before returning it within his jutsu.

The hunter dropped down to the forest floor. For such a large man, he may as well have been a feather with all the noise he made. His silence was what made him so dangerous. A shinobi was often either weak, and must rely on stealth to be effective, or strong, and handle the assault. The mist ninja was the rare exception. His size and strength was controlled and efficient enough for the best of both attributes. Yonoaka soon sneaked silently up on the pair within listening distance. The real game to him began as he listened to their plans.

"-You've really gone overboard with that fire.-" His prey spoke.

"-I'm sorry, alright? I got nervous and lost a bit of control.-" The second figure spoke. She put her hood up, but Yonoaka managed to see her orange, messy hair. It was like hay and reached her neck. She was filthy to say the least. Any hope of beauty was buried in dry, cracked blood. For Yonoaka, it was a shame. In a different world, she would have all the women he knew running for their money.

"-No need to be sorry. You didn't burn the page, so I don't mind.-"

"-Is this the last one in the land of Earth?-" The female asked.

"-Two more, but they are in the same place as far as I can tell. Unfortunately, it's in most dangerous place we know. We must move fast though. Those other Ninja we saw earlier; they're probably looking for us, and blaming us for those ANBU-types.-"

"-We can manage. Just two more, right? Look. We need to rest. I'm worried you are soon going to enter extreme chakra exhaustion.-"

"-I'm fine. Besides, training you is starting to pay off.-"

"-To think I am capable of all this!-" She quickly turned and with her arms outstretched like she was proud of the destruction, while the male figure walked on and looked back at her admiring the fire.

"-Sorry that I let the past stifle you-." The man waited for her to catch up, never appearing to express his body language under his cloak. They both turned away from the fire, and began walking away from the destruction they had caused.

"-Hm? You said something?-" The female companion spoke more as the pair walked away from what was left of the Fritushi estate. "-I think I know where I went wrong, and set fire to everything. I need to tighten my right fist at the end, and it's like you push your chakra out.-" The orange haired lady exaggerated her movements.

"-Sounds right.-"

"-So, if I don't contain my chakra hard enough, I set fire to everything.-"

The target looked over his shoulder. "-I think you're right. Although, maybe ease up on the size. You aren't doing so well on chakra levels either.-" She giggled, and skipped ahead by a few paces.

"-Good thing there was only two of them and their security had already weakened them.-"

Yonoaka spied that the male figure swayed and almost lost his footing. The girl rushed to act as his support. He did not ask, but it appeared that she cared for her partner. It was something he could use, because he found it difficult to understand what they were saying. He was too far away to distinguish if it was just a heavy accent, or if different words were used altogether.

"-Fuku! Are you alright?-" To which, he nodded.

"-You remember those springs? We should rest there. I don't think I can fight another day without sleep.-"

Yonoaka continued to follow within hearing distance. He wanted to learn as much as possible about his prey, but still found it difficult to hear much. He inwardly sighed. He knew his orders, but it was not quite time to apprehend them. For all he knew, there could be others coming to aid them. One alliance in particular was the Ro alliance, who were usually mentioned alongside the 'lightning demons'. He stalked for several hours, watching. He certainly had the chakra of whoever did the fuuinjutsu by the village. The pair definitely came from that attack, but something didn't seem right. Neither figures showed any sign of rushing, stopping frequently to nurse some injuries. The man had lost his left eye, and the woman fussed over it in what was apparently an alien tongue to the ninja. The woman also had her fair share of injuries, as the male rubbed some medicine onto her left flank. From his vantage point, he could see she was equal parts blushing, and wincing, in pain, while the male just concentrated with an unnerving blank expression. Over time, he noticed they were heading to the natural hot springs within the area. Yonoaka sighed deeply; he hoped they would come easily and not turn out to be who he feared. It was rare that he was wrong, but in this situation, he just saw two teenagers who appeared to be mixed up in all of this.

He was hoping to catch them both in a genjutsu, while he kept an eye on them with his Subete Mimasu to make sure his pray was still walking into his web. He silently summoned the hidden mist technique to bring about a thickening mist, which slowly rolled down the mountain in a natural 'early morning' fashion. He smiled as his plan came together. All he had to do was wait for them to approach. Mist had darkened the area to a thick dusk. Yonoaka slowly walked up towards his prey, and once within range, he wove his hands to cast the genjutsu on the two in front of him.

The female stopped abruptly as the genjutsu took a hold. However, his target did something strange. Instead of stopping as the cloaked woman did, he grunted in agony, and clutched his right side as he fell to the floor. After panting and concentrating to make the pain wear off, Fukushi stood up and drew his katana.

Genjutsu? Great we are under attack again. Fukushi looked around the mist, now becoming unnaturally thick to the point he could only just see Monica next to him. He slowly shifted next to his partner and shook her slightly. Yonoaka frowned. The male didn't manage to dispel the jutsu controlling her, despite managing to get out of it himself. Either he had some natural defense, or, and this surprised him, his targets did not know what it took to get out of a genjutsu. A feat that was easy with a partner, and only difficult when you are left alone with the jutsu.

Yonoaka caused the mist to thicken further, beyond natural. Now, resorting to plan B.

"So, you are also immune to genjutsu. You are full of surprises." He called out.

"So what. Show yourself. You are a coward if you think you could hide in the shadows and kill me."

"Oh, now tell me. Where is the fun in that?" Yonoaka taunted.

Fukushi closed his remaining eye to concentrate on using other senses. Sight was not going to help him here. He was trying to hear his opponent's attack. Footsteps? No! A heartbeat. Fukushi quickly reached behind to parry the rear attack. He turned just fast enough with his eye still only seeing mist. He swung right to left, and deflected a second attack, but the sheer force knocked Fukushi back a step. If his weapon had not have been made with high quality materials, he was sure it would have broken already under the initial attacks. He readied his weapon for the next attack. The tension of the mist was causing chills up his spine, as he glanced left and right.

The next flurry of blows came from Fukushi's right. Clashing metal rang out with each parry. Yonoaka's greatsword moved as fast as Fukushi's smaller weapon despite the difference in weight. After the seventh parry, Yonoaka managed to knock the young ninja hard enough to render his sword useless for blocking the second attack.

Fukushi summoned a kunai with his right hand and Yonoaka's secondary weapon clashed harmlessly against it. Fukushi threw his opponent off, and flicked the kunai into the mist where Yonoaka should have been standing.

"A summoned weapon. Interesting." Yonoaka's voice heard, bodiless.

"Force of habit." Fukushi snapped.

"This is better than I could have imagined. Do you have any idea how easy you were to find?"

Fukushi remained silent to follow the voice. If he was willing to talk, then he wouldn't stop him.

"You left clues everywhere, even the local population could point you out. How you've managed to keep out of the Tsuchikage's eye. I have no idea. But, you surely don't disappoint when it comes to fighting."

Yonoaka swung his sword, having Fukushi duck, and retaliate with a swipe at the large man. He briefly emerged from the mist to attack, but missed as Yonoaka dodged his counter and vanished into the mist once more.

"Let's make this official, I'll be telling stories of this duel to everyone I meet."

Fukushi held his katana with his right hand, and quickly performed hand signals with his left. Once completed, a burst of air shot from Fukushi, and the mist was blown away. Once the two warriors became visible to each other, Yonoaka smiled as he got a close-up of his prey. He saw that Fukushi had one eye covered. He saw the cloak was off, and the tattooed arm was visible to him. His stance was perfect, and his purple eye glared straight at him, unmoved by emotion and his blade remained still as ice in the air.

"I am Yonoaka of the Mist."

Fukushi gave a faint smiled in appreciation for his formality, breaking his stoic face.

"I am Fukushi Torro, of the Solaris Family. May my ancestors witness this fight, and glory to the victor." Despite his smile, Fukushi spoke with an even tone as if he was speaking out of necessity, rather than any sincerity in his words.

"You know how to flatter me, Fukushi."

Both men ran at each other with blades clashing over and over. However, Yonoaka struck with such force, he was able to rip Fukushi's katana out of his hand. He followed up with a kick to Fukushi's stomach, just as Fukushi performed a lightning jutsu which activated when he struck Yonoaka in his right side, causing both men to blow each other apart to the impact of trees opposite each other. Yonoaka's tree began to collapse from having suffered such punishment. Without any pause, he quickly picked up his greatsword and threw it across the road. Fukushi jumped at the last moment, and landed on the flat of the sword's blade, as it dug deep into the tree trunk.

"I see. You are proficient with a sword." Yonoaka commented.

Fukushi bit his lip, and decided to go on the attack. Signing a jutsu with his left hand, four kunai appeared above his head, and shot out at Yonoaka with consecutive bangs. He threw two kunai in retaliation to deflect two blades, and just managed to dodge the other two. Both men quickly armed themselves with more kunai before they clashed again; both blocking and swiping each other. Fukushi's advantage was having more kunai to flick at his opponent, while Yonoaka had the strength. Fukushi summoned a second blade at the last minute, and while parrying with his right hand, he was able to cut into Yonoaka's right bicep. This caused the great man to cry out in agony, and throw Fukushi back, who then proceeded to pick up his katana. This gave the Mist shinobi the time needed to dive for his own sword and rip it out of the tree. Despite his wound, he held his greatsword in his right hand, and readied himself to Fukushi's next attack. In unison, both opponents flicked kunai with their left hands.

The kunai missed each other, and simultaneously impaled both men. Fukushi was struck in the right shoulder under his collar bone with such force the blade almost penetrated straight through the younger shinobi. Yonoaka was struck in his right side, forcing him to use his great sword to balance by planting it in the ground. He looked up at the one-eyed opponent, who had been staggered by the force of the blade. Fukushi readied himself, but gave away his exhaustion by breathing heavily and panting loudly. The one-eyed ninja ran to deal the killing blow. Yonoaka responded by flicking a Johyo, which wrapped around Fukushi's legs. Yonoaka's eyes widened as Fukushi was gone in a blinding flash of lightning. the coiled rope fell to the floor as if it was flung aimlessly. The last thing Yonoaka felt the cold katana impale his heart. He coughed blood as he sank forward, and rolled over to his back, right hand still gripping his sword tightly.

Yonoaka, with the last of his strength, spoke, although all he could see were the colours of the world fading away. "S-so that's why they call you the lightning demon. Truly you have brought honour and glory to your family." He spoke quietly and slowly, but Fukushi allowed him to finish his last words with a winning grin on his face. Yonoaka now was simply waiting for death to finally take his life.

"I hope you see them. I doubt I'll ever get the chance, not where I am going." He sighed heavily, and clutched at the kunai which stuck out of his flesh. "Not anymore." The victor stood over the body. Fukushi felt a sting of guilt, followed by sadness, as he bit his lip. He knew what he was, and it was far too late to turn back.

"-W-what happened, Fuku? You're hurt! Are you ok?-" A female voice cried out, as the genjutsu wore off.

"-Yeah. At least…I didn't have to use.. much… chakra.-" Fukushi managed to reply, but the duel had taken too much of a toll. As he swayed dangerously and threatened to collapse, Monica ran to his aid and helped him walk further up the path, looking increasingly worried over the kunai in his shoulder.

Yonoata no longer could hear the mortal world. The voices of his prey grew to a peaceful silence. With great effort, the dying man reached into his breast pocket, and retrieved a pen with a note paper and jotted down the following.

'There is two of them. One has an eye injury. Partner is a red-head.'

'They speak a language I can't understand.'

'The male is 'Fukushi Torro of the Solaris family'. Other unknown. No allegiance with anyone.'

'Both are injured.'

The great warrior closed his eyes and fell away from this world. His only regret would be about his wife and child, how they would never get to see him alive once more. He drew out his last breath, as she couldn't think of what else to write. All the while, the last of the mist cleared to allow the last of the day's sun to illuminate the warriors final resting place, only to be discovered by the Leaf ninja an hour later.


	6. Chapter VI Just who are these guys!

**Finished university! I am now free! oh it feels so good.**

 **DirePanda072. Yeah I had a plan right to the end for the story but with the earlier version the plot as a whole grew too unstable as many parts had not been as thought out as I would have liked. It was my first attempt at a fan-fic so it was all a learning curve. Oh and you got it right about the family name. Think of it as Monica and Fukushi calling themselves Konoha instead. They are just referring to their birth place as part of their name.**

 **Thanks to Missrach, that sexy thing is doing gods work.**

 **Back to the Leaf Shinobi's Perspective.**

"Hinata, look for two people not one." Shikamaru looked up from the note. "There's two confirmed now." He stood up and closed his eyes whilst putting his hands together out of habit. Reviewing the information he knew. Heavily connected with the Ro Alliance so the other teams should fill in those gaps. Judging by the Yonoaka's body the killing blow was dealt from behind. He knew of the mist Shinobi and getting circled was not an option so that confirmed more exotic jutsu. Presumably when the lightning strike occurred. Scorched ground indicates as such. Solaris? It's a butchered word similar to 'Sun'. What a drag there is no village hidden in the sun. Injuries are interesting though, where have I seen that before?

"They are those two civilians we rescued."

"What?" The other three looked at Shikamaru as if he said something crazy.

"You mean those two who were facing off a dozen bandits?" Naruto asked cautiously in case he had misheard him."

"Think, they were both seriously injured. One was missing an eye? Not only that they had managed to kill a couple before we arrived. Not too shabby for civilians." Shikamaru stated. "Hmm, Hinata how is your search going?"

"N-Naruto, could you lend me some of your chakra? I might be able to see further." Hinata spoke quietly. She couldn't see any distinctive pairs and despite being able to see the closest hamlet of houses which had too many people to be their target. Naruto snapped out of his trance. The blonde had been lost in thought as another victim had been found and no one to answer to these crimes. He couldn't make far reaching links like Shikamaru could but so far all he could see is a pair of killers. However, he smiled, approached Hinata and offered her his hand. She blushed but took a hold of it and could feel the warmth of Naruto's chakra flowing within her. His potent chakra made her focus sharpen all the while her fatigue faded from the day's events. Her eyes no longer ached as much from sustained use.

Sakura blushed when she sneaked a glance over at the two ninja as she checked over the cadaver. She had begun to miss Sasuke once again after he left on a journey of self-reflection over a year ago. The growing couple in front of her made Sakura feel somewhat jealous. She knew that Sasuke would eventually return to her. Nevertheless there was also the part of her who was impatient and demanded attention of Sasuke. Today and now.

"There I think I see them Eight kilometres away. Due North west and heading away." Hinata confirmed. She appeared to be facing off the path but Shikamaru decided to just follow the path. Now they had a lock from Hinata it would be difficult to lose them again. Naruto and Hinata ended up looking into each others eyes, both naturally smiling before blushing. Hinata was more obvious than Naruto with her pale skin showing the colour contrast well. With a parting squeeze on each other's hands they turned to Shikamaru and caught up before he headed too far away.

"Could you see if they were depleted of chakra?" Shikamaru thought out loud as he leaped from one branch to the next.

"N-no I can't tell any details from this distance but one was leaning against the other. They were also walking slowly"

"One was injured." Maybe Yonoaka meant he injured one of them. Might not be those two civilians. "That's our target. Alright, we don't engage first of foremost" He glanced directly at Naruto and hoped he could take a hint. Naruto squeezed his fists tighter at the thought of being so close to him. If they were injured then subduing them might be easier. So he could make them pay for their murders.

"We have to assume his partner is equally as dangerous so we must tread lightly, keep a distance and Sakura with myself will approach as close as possible to see if we can find out more about their plans. Naruto and Hinata keep your distance and analyse their chakra as best as you can. Any questions?" The three teammates shook their heads. Shikamaru's plan was simple but it meant they had more information to present to the Tsuchikage without any risk to life. Yonoaka was enough.

The four shinobi began to rush from branch to branch. They kept at a speed which allowed for minimum noise so they covered eight kilometres slower than their usual maximum speed. The Summer's evening sky shone in pale oranges and blue above them as the mountainous temperatures began to drop causing their breaths to smoke out of their mouths as they gracefully leaped from tree to tree. Frost had begun to shimmer on the ground and the branches were icy to the touch. The mountain climate cooled down as rapidly as it heats up when morning arrives.

They stopped well out of hearing range and immediately Sakura and Shikamaru jumped down to slowly approach the pair up ahead. Leaving Naruto and Hinata in their hiding spot up in the tree.

"Are we in range to get a good view of him Hinata?"

"Yes, this should be fine." Hinata smiled she had been spending the past two years getting used to Naruto being near-by, mostly with the help of her friends but lately it's becoming second nature to her. Fainting no longer happened although the blushing she was yet to master. The Hyuuga then looked down the road and whispered "Byakugan." She could reminisce how happy her life was turning out later.

"What can you see?"

"The injured one… erm that can't be right?"

"What did you see?" Naruto asked again, confused over Hinata's response. Hinata looked intensely for a few moments making sure she was seeing correctly. When Hinata gazed at the chakra network and she noticed on his left hand his chakra was slowly dripping out and fizzing on the ground. It was like his chakra network had somehow been slit open on his fingers to allow a steady flow to escape his body. Normally even with an injury the chakra coils would shut down to prevent any flowing out. This is what made the gentile fist particularly dangerous. Should the strikes miss a coil they could instead sever the flow between two coils. Thus making all strikes damaging.

"By the looks of it he was injured on his right shoulder… but his left hand, I can see his chakra dripping as if he was bleeding chakra." Hinata spoke confused. "Only that can't be right, when a chakra pathway is damaged no chakra flows."

"So his left hand is injured?" Naruto managed to follow and picture what Hinata was seeing.

"In a way but nothing like I've seen. Though I wonder if anyone has heard of it?"

A Soft growl from within Naruto spoke out "Would it help if I told you he feels cold? If Naruto would switch to Kyubi-mode, he would feel it too." Kurama spoke from within so Hinata could hear. Kurama and Hinata had become comfortable enough to speak to each other. Rarely there were exceptions but only when Kurama felt his opinion truly mattered. He wouldn't admit to liking the girl. However, Naruto's thoughts and feelings have spread their influence to the Beast's own mind. Naruto was still pretty clueless over her desire to be even closer. If her recent attempts were to show anything, it would have been Hinata wishing to become intimate to Naruto. Needless to say he became entertained as the two were too shy to make a solid move. So why stop the fun by tell Naruto about Hinata's true feelings? Kurama had other reasons, again never to be admitted, was he was impressed with the girl. Her kekkei genkai. Her determination to become stronger. Even exceeding all expectations with a self-imposed bet the demon made against himself. Although probably the most important reason for Kurama; was Hinata was the second human to accept him fully. When she had the opportunity to speak with Kurama, she spoke truthfully and without fear.

Naruto concentrated for a moment and the glowing orange façade glowed as he switched his chakra to use Kyubi. He felt the glow of emotions from everyone around him, Hinata revealed an aura of pink with swirls of red and yellow. Indications of love, passion, and wonder. Sakura and Shikamaru showed a mix of blue, purple, and turquoise. Indicating negative emotions like being nervous or missing someone dear to them. The uninjured partner was showing extreme fear, the kind of fear where you were expecting the whole world to collapse in on itself. There was a fierce purple aura that grimly hung around the pair. Naruto looked towards their target, he saw what Kurama had meant. There was an aura of icy white. The desolate white that was bleached out colour yet still froze the area around him physically. Occasionally a flare of purple swirled which told Naruto everything he needed to know

"He looked like Obito with your chakra Kurama. Someone who had been emotionally destroyed." Naruto spoke so Hinata understood.

"Like Obito?"

"There aren't many people as 'plain' as him."

"Thinking about his leaking chakra, Hinata, the only thing I can think of is if some Jutsu is forcing his chakra nodes on his finger open; going against the natural. But I am not sure how or why. Might explain it though." Kurama spoke in a low tone so only the pair of ninja could possibly hear him.

Before they could continue to think. Hinata noticed the pair of killers stop and the injured one slumps to a nearby tree stump. The Hyuuga watched as the woman appeared to hold his hand like she was caring for him. The girl in the distance proceeded to follow through some hand signals. What surprised Hinata further was how efficient she was with her chakra, not wasting anything and seemingly using the perfect amount. Apparently the pair had summoned something which was now on the ground by them as they quietly conversed with each other. The uninjured partner looking over the injured one.

"Something is happening." She whispered and the three of them watched whilst ready to defend Sakura and Shikamaru.

* * *

The two stalking shinobi snuck in the undergrowth. Their professional silence made sure that even with highly acute hearing they were nigh on impossible to hear. They managed to get close enough to hear the conversation going on between them. The two figures were both cloaked and facing away with the injured man leaning heavily on his partner.

"-I- I need to rest, I've lost too much blood. Shit, I've definitely over done it.-"

"-Ya' think? _-"_ She flinched as Fukushi swayed "-I got you. Just, here, just sit _.-"_ Spoke Monica. Sakura and Shikamaru both looked at each other. That was certainly not their own language. Shikamaru frowned but begun to concentrate intensely on what was being said. To the point Sakura swore she could see the cogs working at full steam in her teammates head.

"-I can seal the wound, could you tell me that Jutsu you used on your eye? Please, I can do it.-" While the pair were unable to understand they could hear the worry in her voice. She immediately signed through several hand-signed and summoned what looked like a rolled up scroll. The girl proceeded to look over the injury and pull some of the ruined cloth away from the kunai.

"-Fire style.-" He breathed heavily from exhaustion from the combination of the battle last night, the duel earlier and the wound sapping energy with the blood loss. "-Dominant hand point.-" He slowly showed the second hand sign. "-heat.-" His fingers on his left hand slowed a weak yellow before fading out. The young girl proceeded to copy him and her fingers appeared to catch fire into a bright blue flame. The leaf shinobi watched as she hesitated before gripping onto the kunai blade with her free hand and readying her burning hand to the wound.

"-I'm so sorry _-_." The woman spoke softly. She was facing away but had they seen they could tell tears were running down her dirty cheeks.

The two peeking shinobi ducked so they didn't see the kunai being pulled out followed immediately by the noise of a loud hiss of boiling blood and flesh as she cauterised the wound. The roar of pure pain would have shaken even the most battle-hardened warriors. Needless to say, the leaf ninja had seen enough and decided to fall back and regroup. As Sakura left she swore she could hear the woman crying to herself for causing such pain to her partner.

* * *

The four regrouped and Shikamaru immediately ordered. "We should go and report in, talk about what we found on the way. I doubt those two are in any shape to do anything tonight." He had half expected for Naruto to want to take advantage of their condition but one look showed that the blond jinchuriki was conflicted to say the least. "Did you find out anything with your Byakugan?" Shikamaru queried.

"Y-yes, He has erm. To be honest I didn't look at what I was supposed to be looking for." She frowned at failing but maybe if she thought hard enough she could remember more about the pairs' chakra. "Did you see any wounds on his left arm?"

"No, he had it mostly covered why?" Sakura quickly replied as they jumped through the trees.

"His left hand was leaking chakra, I never seen anything like it." Hinata spoke up so the whole group could hear.

"I think I read about chakra pathways leaking in one book once, it happens briefly when a pathway is cut but quickly seals up again." Sakura added, her medical knowledge becoming evident. As the four ninja began to retrace their steps towards the mountain pass.

"Mno, this looked like he was bleeding chakra. The pathways were f-forced open." Hinata responded.

"Hmph this is a drag but... I think we have enough for one day. We know he has a range of unique Jutsu. He is a close ranged fighter and takes speed over stealth. I believe the relationship between the two is a student and teacher one. Although I wouldn't be surprised if there was more going on." This made Shikamaru frown. "Which suggests he is willing to teach others and improve their overall abilities. We are watching the man apparently showing a jutsu to his partner before." Shikamaru shuddered slightly. The team all heard the pain. The Nara head continued. "Worst case, an organised group like the Akatsuki. Although judging by what we saw I believe this is more of a lone wolf deal."

He looked around to make sure everyone was following him. "We know he is injured so we have time. I'm thinking tomorrow we talk to the other teams and report the death of Yonoaka. Along with their last known location" Shikamaru felt more relaxed now he had more information about their target. He even had a 'next step' which should put them ahead of their seemingly unaware opponents for once.

Much of the team were exhausted as night fell. They had to report in to the Tsuchikage before they could find sleep in their hotel. Naruto was the only one who wasn't yawning throughout the report. Team Shikamaru were able to meet up with Druarni and Arra who were quickly able to fill in a few blanks to their identities. Afterwards, as they entered the Inn, Hinata slumped against Naruto. Sakura smirked as she was sure Hinata did that on purpose. Although Naruto was still just as clueless he was still nice enough to allow Hinata to lean on him. They figured that finding the pages would be the most productive task for them to do as Team Kumo still wanted to check something first before seeking out their targets.

* * *

Druarni and Arra's first day had been interesting to say the least. Despite giving plenty of warning that the pair wanted to seek audience with the Ro alliance correspondent in Iwa. The soonest they could see him was at the crack of dawn the next day. So the pair of shinobi did what they did best and gathered information around the city of Iwa. Sure it looked picturesque from the surface but it only took them a single stairway to find the parts of the city inside the very rock. The sheer scale was astonishing to them as they walked down brightly lit streets. Each ally gave way to some shady corridor where the light dared not touch.

First impressions aside the pair quickly noticed the lack of shinobi down here. Any part of authority came from civilians in uniforms. the police lacked the presence of a shinobi and in most cases lacked the physique of one too. The usual whispers of business and tales from various places reached the shinobi's ears but nothing they could use. Somewhat frustrated Druarni turned to her partner and smiled at him.

"I don't think we will find anything down here. Say. Fancy a drink?"

Arra did not need to answer he just leaned and kissed her on the lips. She smiled and lightly brushed his scarred face. Her hands lightly drifted down his body and found his hands. He nudged his head in the direction to a nearby bar. The building in question as at street level with no walls separating the inside from the outside. Each and every edge had a bright and glaring hot pink or electric blue bar light which made the red floor appear black in some places. Nevertheless it served its purpose at selling drinks.

"What can I get for you two?" The bartender was a young looking man with his hair ironed back over itself and wearing some equally glaring clothes. Despite serving he was leaning on the counter and smoking a cigarette. He hopped down to reveal he was talking to some blond woman who simply clicked her tongue and gave her own drink some attention. Meanwhile the boy snubbed his smoke out onto an ashtray by the time the pair of Kumo shinobi leaned to the counter.

"Two sake bottles."

He tapped the table and turned to pour out the liquor. As soon as the bottles were given, two glasses, poured and downed. Much to the boy's surprise as he saw they hardly even flinched.

"Thanks, these will do." Arra spoke as he patted down some money as the pair made their way to some comfortable looking couches in a booth.

"My they do recruit them young these days." A slight gesture to her partner indicated she was not talking about the bartender, nor his girlfriend.

"It was a shame, I was hoping some time to enjoy ourselves." Arra shot her a knowing smirk.

"Mmmn it's better at home."

"Of course, The sea air is what I could do with right about now."

"Remember that bar, at the queys?"

"The one I took you on our first date?" Arra smiled at the memory.

"Hmm someone is earning their brownie points."

"Well I do remember no one there spying on us." Arra spoke a little louder to show that the game was up. A moments silence before they heard someone utter the word 'shit'.

"You going to offer the next round? or just going to listen in?" Druarni spoke softly, as if neither of them minded the interruption. Although part of them wished that the eves dropper could just neatly fall down dead and not disturb their night. The eavesdropper came around cloaked in a dull maroon coloured cloth with his arms out in the open to indicate they did not want to start a fight. He was able to position himself to make his face hard to see in the strange neon light.

"My apologies Mr and Mrs shinobi. I was merely making sure your intentions were honourable for my employer."

"Pervert." Druarni muttered.

The new arrival just waved off the comment and continued. "I am guessing you are after a pair of certain individuals. It is the only explanation why foreign shinobi are in these lands. Compared to others the land of earth is faring well and our problems are nothing if domestic at best."

"You're well read for someone who is not an Iwa Shinobi." Arra scoffed and subtly adjusted himself to be better prepared.

"That is not important but I will show you this." The cloaked figure pulled the cloak that was tied by her neck apart and revealed his headband. It was brand new and still polished but instead of the earth insignia is had a bundle of sticks. "Ninja function on information and secrets. I however want something more tangible." The figure pulled back her hood to reveal a young face. Somewhere in her twenties but with burn marks covering her face. Instead of hair she wore a silk purple scarf to cover the lack of hair. This peaked the interests of the two older shinobi.

"This is a message from me personally. They killed my whole team. The bitch was hiding some sort of fire jutsu and I was only saved because my teacher sacrificed himself to stop the fire." Her voice started to drip with vile and hate. Her glare was getting darker as she recalled those events. "When I head Iwa hired foreign shinobi I jumped on the opportunity to get my revenge. I will guarantee you entry tomorrow to see my employer but you must promise me to kill them both for what they did."

She left without a word. Storming out to try and collect her nerves. There she stood in front of the gaze of everyone in the bar who had heard her outburst. The girl slumped her shoulders in defeat and flicked her hood over her head before walking out of sight.

Druarni and Arra would be lying if they said that had not damped their spirits so instead they just idly explored under the city until they called it a night and awoke to their meeting with the correspondent. The man they wanted to speak with resided in a tall tower made from the very stone the mountain provided. While the building had a traditional appearance with the rest of the city. There were many modern elements to it such as large glass windows and a elevator to provide quick access to the higher rooms. Inside was clean with white floor and wall tiles. Decorated with the occasional plant pot.

Up ahead on the floor they agreed to meet on were two guards. One was a tall man with a bored look on his face. Wearing standard shinobi attire of brown uniform and maroon flak jacket. The other figure was the same cloaked woman from before. Her uniform seldom revealed from under the cloak she still wore. At first she remained motionless. Like a painted statue but as Arra and Druarni approached the girl she seemed to snap out of whatever her mind was distracting her with and quickly opened the door.

"My employer will speak with you now." She showed them in and them silently closed the door behind the pair of cloud shinobi.

Inside the office was very clean, like most of the building, But to either side of the large window behind the desk held many flags of both Ro and Iwa. Some paintings of the senior heads who ran the building; framed in gold. The desk was made from a pale wood and was carved with exquisite detail again gilded with gold and gave the air that whoever sat behind held extensive wealth and power. The man in question was an elderly gentleman, easily well into his twilight years with grey hair and leathery skin. He made his best effort to make himself look presentable and respectful to the visiting shinobi. He immediately stood up and bowed from behind his desk. Waiting for a split second to see the bow returned before speaking.

"Greetings I am Hideki Morrotoshi, current head of the Iwagakure branch of the Ro Alliance. I'd like to welcome you personally to my office and pray our business comes to a satisfactory conclusion."

"My name is Arra from the Meki clan and this is my wife, Druarni."

"The pleasure is all mine. Now I'm afraid I'd like to get straight to business. I understand to have a letter from the Tsuchikage?"

"Yes." Druarni opened up her pouch on her leg and in on quick motion she flicked the scroll into her palm and handed over to Hideki. He spend a minute or two reading over the letter before nodding and sitting down at his desk with a clean piece of paper and a quill in his hand to write a response.

"So you are here after those responsible for the death of the Iwa ANBU." He took a deep breath before continuing to write. "Well I can't tell you much about their abilities but I can tell you why this all started. Please, take a seat. I'll be finished and let you both be on your way as soon as possible." The shinobi did as asked and listened to the elderly man.

"From what I've been told they were two kids found in the mountains. One girl and one boy and both had purple eyes. Neither spoke a word in our language. At the time, the Ro alliance was just starting up and was tiny compared to now. Tenushi was the name of the guy who picked them up. Ah he is no longer with us. I'll get to that later." He paused to think more about his letter.

"It was something about their eyes, or so I was told. Something only seen in the most veteran shinobi of course. A glazed over look like nothing seemed to interest them." He sighed and wrote some more, dipping his quill in the ink at regular intervals. "The boy, Fukushi I think his name was. Proved to be a huge asset and so was popular in jobs within the Ro alliance. We kept him and by extension the girl well hidden because he was gifted in jutsu."

"Anyway. I'll get to the point. Tenushi, as much as I respect the man, got greedy with his power and managed to persuade Fukushi to part with this book. I have one here in fact. Before Tenushi could stop himself he decided to sell each page for a monstrous price. This was over a month ago. He was able to tell over two dozen pages before some guy walked up to Fukushi and asked to translate. Things did not go well."

"Where does the Iwa ANBU come in?"

"Unfortunately the man under their guard wanted to hire Iwa. I don't think those two knew much about the wider politics. Just kept themselves to themselves. When the pair wanted to get the pages back I doubt they saw a difference in allegiance."

"So he is hell-bent on getting those pages returned to him?"

"In all honesty if Tenushi had not valued them so high I think this mess would have been totally avoided. But. Some idiots decided they could get more pages out of him. From what I heard it was a group of Ro shinobi who obviously heard it from one of us and attacked the girl. Ah wish I could remember her name. Previously she did not show much interest in jutsu. Totally average in taijutsu. Turns out when under stress she sets fire to everything. I fear she was about to get raped, that kind of stress. The fire was so intense we lost another unit of shinobi who came to investigate the fire."

"Things have gone downhill from there. Both of them turned against us and we've been loosing more of our hired shinobi almost daily by their rampage."

"So has reasoning with the pair not worked?"

The elderly man shook his head. "I think she was severely hurt emotionally by men under our banner. I just want to retire at this point. To get out of here before the alliance breaks down." He sighed and paused to read over the letter to the Tsuchikage.

"You can't handle them so you're in need of help?" Druarni was starting to piece together what happened. It was clear whoever these two shinobi were they were betrayed. On the other hand something was not being mentioned and she narrowed her eyes slightly in suspicion.

"In short yes. They will be leaving the land of earth once they get the last pages here. There weren't many taken out of the country but rest assured he will want them. Aside from that they'll be coming here. I have one page myself and I think there is one more in the village."

Hideki rolled up the scroll and sealed it in wax before handing it back to Druarni. "I am not sure what else to tell you. Being in the Iwa branch means I miss a lot of the action." He got up and bowed, then proceeded to show them out of the door. "You might want to act quickly however. What I do know from their abilities is their recovery time is exceptionally fast. Leave them alone long enough and they are able to keep themselves going. Anyway I must pack. The Tsuchikage will receive a package in a day or so but I am to leave the city unless my life is to be forfeit."

Their meeting was brief and yet Druarni and Arra felt like they both had found something of use. While heading through the market district and towards the Tsuchikage's tower in the centre of the city they had encountered a certain group of shinobi that could only be recognised as Leaf shinobi. The four looked tired with the orange-clad ninja holding a well dressed lady with pale eyes and long raven hair. A tired looking male with pricings and tied up hair. He was busy idly smoking a cigarette. Much to the dislike of the final member. A woman with pink hair and red combat kimono. The Cloud shinobi thought for a while but remembered they were tasked with finding out the story behind Fritushi. A simple call out allowed the pair to catch up and silently walked into the office for de-briefing.


	7. Chapter VII A good soak feels the best!

**Comments, questions, reviews are all welcome. I am still trying to improve my writing style.**

 **Note added: I've also changed the tags to from tragedy to romance, as my story developed i felt it better described where i am heading.**

 **Thanks to Missrach for keeping up with editing. You're a great help.**

 **Also reminder, "- _These dashes_ -" suggests speech in a different language (so you all can understand essentially but most of the characters can't) It becomes more and more important later as characters interact.**

 **Fukushi and Monica's perspective.**

Monica had been carrying Fukushi for an hour or so. He was still unconscious from her cauterising his shoulder wound. Her load wasn't heavy and she was surprised because she was expecting his strength to be present in his weight. Reguardless, she was weary by the time she found the nearby hot springs. The water steamed up into the cool night air and the liquid shone a bright blue illuminating the surrounding ravine which hid the waters. Monica carefully slid Fukushi off her back and leaned him against the rock. She fiddled with a small pouch and retrieved a small jar of herbs. Carefully she peeled back what was left of his tunic, which by now was sticky from the gore. Wasting no time, Monica undid the lid and dipped a finger into the thick green mush. Carefully plastering the sealed hole on his shoulder with the healing balm. Although, the moment the red-head touched his flesh the young adult in front woke with a start before sucking on his teeth to ease the pain.

"-Uh how long was I out? _-"_

Monica squeaked with excitement. "-Fuku! You're awake! Uh urm. An hour I think _?-"_ She suddenly latched onto him with a hug. The one-eyed shinobi lay there stunned with her sudden advances but slowly smiled and returned the hug.

"-I don't know how much more I can take of this.-"

"-We will make it. I-I was just worried you'd leave me.-" Monica looked away, the silence for the last hour or so had gave her too much room to think.

"-You can use the pool over there if you like. I think we are safe here.-" Fukushi muttered as he sluggishly got up to take his cloak off. Monica blushed and walked away behind a large wall of rocks. They both got undressed and once naked they entered their respective pools. Monica dipped her foot into the pale blue waters and realised how warm it felt. The perfect temperature to not scald her but not too cool that her body would acclimatize in minutes.

Fukushi meanwhile had ungracefully entered and sat by the edge and rested his eyes. He doubted that his body would even cooperate should they be attacked. Everything ached. from his eye which was cut out by a Ro shinobi who was capable of invisibility for a time. Not having any way to sense chakra, Fukushi fell victim to his attack. Only with his teleportation, was he capable enough to cheat death.

He was listening to the quiet trickle of water which refilled the pool and washed away the grime and blood that coated Fukushi's body. He hadn't heard Monica entering his pool until he noticed the silent ripples lapping across his chest. He looked up and before he had a chance to react, Monica lunged at him and wrapped her arms around his neck for support. He was stunned for a moment when he realised she was pressing up against him with her naked body. Her skin felt soft as he quickly gave in to her embrace and with a blink back into reality he looked at Monica. her orange hair was wet and stuck flat to her scalp in a deep, almost red in places, colour. Fukushi focused his gaze on Monica's eyes lilac which reflected the blue light surrounding them. He didn't dare look any lower in case she took offense so he remained looking up into her eyes.

Monica was blushing as usual but she didn't tremble or find her actions uncomfortable. She gazed into Fukushi's remaining deep purple eye which also glinted blue from the surrounding pool. He still had a ribbon of cloth covering his left eye but it wasn't enough to hide the long scars, one that took his eye and the other to save her life. She gave him a little smile and before the silence of the moment settled she leaned in to his right ear to whisper.

"-I think I know what to do with my life.-"

She quickly looked back to see his face. His furrowed eyebrow indicated to was curious to what she had meant and so had urged her to continue. He had his guard down which made Monica confident he was listening to her. She remained focused on Fukushi's face.

"-I'm going to stop your suffering. Stop your pain. I can't bear to see you carry on like this anymore.-" She smiled but her face spoke volumes of how upset she was over him. With a small crack in her voice she continued. "-F-for as long as I can remember you've always been there protecting me. I-I understand about your family but honestly, not once you gave a thought to yourself. _-"_ The soaked girl looked a way momentarily. A blush forming on her cheeks, subtle in the low light but noticeable in the close proximity.

"-We've been through hell together. Crossed jungles and mountains together. Through rain sleet and snow. You've always stood strong against it. Never complaining and lord knows you've never enjoyed a moment of it. _-_ " She studied his face, looking for any sign that what she said had sunk into his head. Fukushi took a deep and heavy breath that seemed to rattle in his lungs. He couldn't look her directly in the eye after what she said. Slowly she rested her head onto his left chest, hearing the quiet thump of his heart.

"-Just now. when I saw you. I didn't see a strong warrior. Or a powerful shinobi. Or a god-like human. You looked exhausted and I know there's nothing you want more than to stop and it's weighing on you heavier than you let on. Tell me if I am wrong.-"

"-Sorry.-" He gulped and sighed. "-I should have helped you to help me sooner.-" Fukushi muttered She could feel his tears slowly drip onto her head, it didn't faze her she knew it could easily be washed away. "-If I had trained you sooner... If I was there faster-"

"-Shhhh. no need. The Solaris family have always been guarded with their knowledge. I don't blame you for something you were raised on.-"

"-But I should have helped you sooner. There is only you and me left.-"

"-And you are grasping at the last of your sanity. Anything you do is to keep that last scraps of home alive.-" She sighed heavily and with her right hand she traced the intricate black tattoo Which covered the left half of Fukushi's chest and his entire left arm. Right now she focused where the jutsu swirled around his heart. A right just above his nipple had five finger prints coloured as the same black colour as the fuinjutsu.

She knew better than to ask but she still wanted to look at it. The tattoo on Fukushi's arm had an air of pain about it has he'd always avoid talking about it. Monica's knowledge of this fuuinjutsu was limited as a family secret of sorts.

The scarred woman heard him about to say something but with her reflexes she surprised him with a kiss onto his lips. Fukushi was stunned for sure this time. His eye was wide open as the orange haired girl kissed him with her eyes closed. They enjoyed each other's embrace until the water settled back to the smooth pool it was before. Monica pulled away and with a blush and a giggle as he leaded on as if asking for more.

"-Let yourself hope once in a while. We are in this together _._ -" Monica confirmed with determination in her voice.

Fukushi noticed her breasts and with a blush he looked away. Monica smiled that she finally got him to blush. Her heart skipped a few beats with butterflies rushing through her stomach. She was sure he admired her just now.

"-Why me? _-"_ He mumbled.

"-Could have been anyone.-" Her voice surprisingly cold suddenly. Echoing what he said to her years ago. When they had fled their home and vanished into the unknown. It was the first thing he had said to her after he pulled her to safety away from the fired that engulfed their past. Admittedly she was scared of him at first. Constant mutterings, seeing things, being scared, crying, shouting, and sometimes almost paralysed with some hidden pain. Thankfully this was not to last and over their travels he calmed down enough to acknowledge her existence.

Fukushi instantly knew what she was referencing and tensed up with the mere thought of back then.

"-But you are my saviour and I meant it when I said I'll do anything to return the favour.-" She whispered her next sentence slowly. "-And. I. Will. Do. More.-" She giggled again and nuzzled her head back onto Fukushi's chest. "-We Solaris are stubborn aren't we?-"

Fukushi had his emotions conflicted. He wasn't used to letting anyone get so close to him. He had a voice telling him to accept it, she will help. However, experience was flashing painful memories of betrayal and loss. It was clear he was still hesitant and Monica sighed impatiently.

"-Hold me if you think I am pretty.-" A trap which forced Fukushi to make a choice there and then, He wrapped his arms around her back and brought the naked lady closer to him. He could swear he heard her purr in enjoyment. "-That was my first kiss, I used it as a promise. So you know I am serious. I only need a little more training before I can stand by you.-" Fukushi closed his eye despite experience screaming in his head. The comfort and warmth eventually dragging him into a deep sleep.

* * *

Morning came and Fukushi woke up with a gasp. He had been dreaming again about someone who he could hardly recognise, about _her_. But his slight movement brought back a dull aching throughout his body. Especially his shoulder and face where he was cut horrifically. He looked around because he noticed he was alone where once he was sure he had company. His ears twitched when he could hear someone humming a tune to themselves.

The melody was sweet yet sad. Each note crisp and clear despite the heavy accent normally associated with Monica. Monica was reciting the tune, the emotion clear in her voice. The song was one that even Fukushi knew, about a warrior far from home; finally accepting his fate. He assumed she must have learned it off her mother before everything. Although like himself, she never wanted to talk about it.

A blue flash brought his attention to out of the water and he saw the back of Monica, she was fully naked and Fukushi couldn't help but see her toned body. She was thin and worn from her travels and yet despite her features pronounced she had a subtle air of warmth on her skin. Her own injury up her left flank was an angry dark red which violently clashed with her skin. Other smaller scars that accumulated over the years striped across her back. This, was not to say she was any less beautiful. She held her injury with a strong sense of pride, that she survived it rather than become ruled by it.

The young shinobi caught himself staring a little too long at her ass. She was using her fire chakra to quickly dry out all her clothes while Fukushi's had already been dried and folded next to her.

"-Like what you see?- _"_ Fukushi flinched slightly, he had forgotten she had finished her song a few minutes. Monica didn't dare turn to face him though. If she had done he was sure she would be blushing a deep red.

Fukushi coughed. "-Yeah, you're beautiful _.-"_ He blushed over his forwardness.

Monica covered herself in her cloak. For normal civilians would have froze in the cold morning air but months of environmental conditioning had made her immune to such things. That said, it still brought discomfort after long periods. In addition her nerve just broke, Monica couldn't stand being so exposed and in his sight, at least not right now. However, once out of view she grinned and felt ecstatic that she could break him out of his shell and last night wasn't just wasted effort.

They both got dressed and Monica was still blushing. Fukushi dropped what was left his cloak to one side for now.

To Monica, seeing Fukushi without the cloak was pretty unusual as he preferred to keep his body hidden. His sleeveless jacket and shirt had many tears in and showed how much in dire need he needed new clothes. Fukushi had him arms folded and he had collected himself back into his prior posture. His partner could not help but stare, she hardly had time to fully observe him. His left arm still covered in fuuinjutsu as ever while his hand looked painful as the skin was almost always bruised at the fingertips. Like he was in a state of frostbite. Often the shinobi would assure her it doesn't hurt and in hindsight some bruising on the fingers was nothing compared to the loss of his eye or the shoulder injury he received yesterday.

"-I'm going to need you to go to Iwa.-"

"-What? Will you be coming?-" Monica was instantly nervous about being alone once more.

"-Only for a few days, I need you to be there to get that page. You.-" He looked away and sighed heavily. "-You said you wanted to be by my side?-" He paused as if he said the wrong thing. "-You were right my chakra network is in shambles. I still feel burnt out. _-"_

 _"-_ I told you this would happen. Forcing the chakra would only damage you. _-"_ The change in subject calmed her but Monica still had the subconscious fear niggling at the back of her head.

"-Not like we had much of a choice. I ran out of chakra scrolls.-"

Monica frowned but with a quick sigh. "-So while you recover, I go ahead? _-_ "

"-It'll save time and we can get out of here sooner. You're also low on chakra... so please be careful and take it easy _.-"_

 _"-_ If it means we can end this nightmare. I'll do it _.-"_

"-At least I have an idea of how to get out. After all getting in is easy.-" Fukushi quickly signed a jutsu and mumbled 'Lightning style: summoning scroll' in his native tongue. With a flash and smoke he had summoned some plain scrolls with an ink set. He quickly laid them out and started to prepare a fuuinjutsu. "-I suppose now is a good time to get you up to scratch on fuuinjutsu.-"

"-Something else my family branch 'forgot' to teach me.-" Monica huffed as she hated the feeling of being taught. Being taught by Fukushi was pretty much the only up-side she felt to these lessons. "-So what are you drawing? _-"_

"-A teleport matrix _.-_ "

"-I thought you mastered it though? _-_ "

"-I need a line of sight to safely teleport without hand signs basically. It is possible to end up inside solid objects and killing myself-" Fukushi answered bluntly as he kneeled down while ignoring the ink. His finger on his left hand begun to glow a golden yellow as he traced out the pentagram. A dark black line, like his tattoos was left in place has he traced out the drawing. "-Mmn I'll need a drop of your blood so you can activate it too _.-"_

"-Why do I need to activate it? Oh!-" Fukushi's plan suddenly clicked in her head. She even snapped her fingers. "-Whoever finds the pages first. teleports to the scroll. So, if I get it I can summon you?"

"-You figured that out quickly.-" Fukushi teased.

"-I said I was weak. Not dumb.-" Monica Pouted.

"-But yes, it'll save time instead of trying to find each other-"

"-Anyway, we will need you to have more chakra. That comes with training but it is easier if you learned to make your own chakra scrolls. Using mine is never efficient.-"

"-So I still need a scroll for that? _-"_

"-Yeah or you can have it burned onto your body like I have.-"

Monica remembered seeing four identical tattoos down Fukushi's side. She blushed as she remembered she has seen him naked now. It made sense to have them physically attached to you. In addition, it helped maintain the illusion that Fukushi could fight longer since he could draw on the seals without having to make any obvious movements. Especially since teleporting was one of the more consuming abilities in Fukushi's roster.

Fukushi thought for a moment. "Scrolls for now. once you get their pattern memorised you can burn them onto yourself if you like."

"-Hmm probably the best.-" Monica mumbled as she was gazing at what Fukushi was drawing. The large pentagram had started taking shape and she thought it looked beautiful with the intricacy of the pattern. It had reminded her of home as similar patterns decorated many walls. Nothing was ever a blank canvas but the white stone always had some sort of intricate pattern running along it. The memory was brief but one she'd likely never forget.

"-After I've finished with the teleport scroll. I'll show you what the pattern for the chakra storage looks like and you can copy it. With ink for now.-" Fukushi added. He wasn't sure if she was listening or not she just watched him in silence finishing the large scroll. The end result was a large circle about two meters wide with an obvious pentagon in the centre and inside was a squared off figure of eight with the very centre being a small ring left blank. The space in-between the pentagon and the outer circle had lines, dashes, dots and words filling the space. To one side a branch lead out of more pattern work to a smaller circle with more lines and words fanning out from the smaller circle. In the very centre was a small star with a hollow middle and each point pacing a corner of the pentagon again with more words fanning from it. Fukushi summoned a kunai and cut his right hand thumb and let a drop land in the very centre of the scroll followed by pressing said thumb down on it to leave a thumb print in blood. The print quickly burned to the same black as the rest of the scroll.

"-Ok. I want you to do what I just did but in this outer circle.-"

"-Right, sure.-" Monica tried to summon a kunai manually, with hand signs, which worked until she tried cutting yourself and the kunai immediately dispelled as she lost concentration. Fukushi said nothing but handed her his summoned kunai. Monica showed a wave of frustration as she still had not managed to get the jutsu down properly.

"-You've been trying the jutsu for a week now. Don't worry it'll take time to form fully like it's second nature and you won't even have to concentrate to keep it _.-"_ Monica sighed once more _'at least he understands'_ she thought to herself as she pressed her thumb into the scroll.

"-Alright. Basically the scroll works like this.-" He pointed to the centre where he had pressed his blood. "-This is to summon me once the seal is activated. Where you put your blood.-" He pointed over to the off-branch. "-That's so your chakra can also activate the scroll.-"

"-I just push my chakra into the seal? _-"_

"-Basically yeah it's pretty simple stuff actually.-"

"-Erm Fuku?- _"_

"-Yeah? Need something? _-"_

"-Why does it take blood? I've seen you teleport without cutting yourself.-"

Fukushi looked up at Monica with his remaining eye. He sat back to think for a minute. "-It's two types of the same jutsu. While I can use spiritual energy to perform. Some fuuinjutsu requires blood because it is more permanent.-"

"-Is using blood harder?-"

"-Not really. it's just two sides of the same coin. I err... remember some people preferred to use blood more in the fuuinjutsu a long time ago. Using spiritual side takes much more mental capacity to complete but is less physically taxing _.-"_ Fukushi explained to her partner. Satisfied with her nodding of understanding. They had been keeping eye contact since he finished drawing the fuuinjutsu. "-Err sorry I never taught you earlier _.-"_

 _"-_ And I told you it was fine. I'm from a branch who was not supposed to learn anything like this _.-"_

Fukushi allowed silence to fall between the pair as rolled up the scroll and handed it over to Monica who proceeded to cast her own storage seal. The first jutsu she managed to get right without any visual aids. Although she still needed the long version of hand seals.

"-Fire... Style... Storage scroll.-" Monica concentrated and a wide banner of blazing blue fire stretched out to either side above the scroll before both disappeared in smoke. She smiled as she completed the jutsu. "-This is so useful. Wish I knew about this years ago.-"

"-Glad you like it. so want to try storing chakra?-"

Monica beamed a smile at Fukushi to which he gave a small smile as he passed her the ink and a few wrapped-up scrolls. She got busy mixing a small drop of blood into the ink. Using Fukushi's knife again. She would need more practice before she could use spiritual version. Unbeknown to her what she used to seal Fukushi's shoulder was that very jutsu.

"-Now you just got to copy this pattern.-" Fukushi got started on quickly drawing out the circular seal with what looked like brackets to either side. He then made a small circle to the top right corner inside the original circle. Last of all, Fukushi drew a wreath of patterns and symbols around the circle. "-I'll let you get one but I really need to rest.-"

"-Good. You have not slept in days.-" Monica had a sharp tongue but secretly she was relieved he finally took a break.

Monica spent the new two hours trying to get the shape right. Using a lot of the scroll paper which was now discarded around where she sat. Fortunately, the was no wind, otherwise the discarded scrolls would have blown all over the valley by now. Fukushi just sat with his eye closed and dead to the world softly breathing as he allowed himself to recover. Over time Monica started getting the lines crisp, shapes at the right angle, and the size perfect on each scroll. Being left to her thoughts, a phantom giggle made her slip her hand and she cursed out loud before starting again with a fresh scroll.

"-It's getting late. you should get moving.-" Fukushi spoke from out of the blue, causing Monica to jump and ruin the seal she was busy on.

"-Hey! I almost had it before you made me jump!-" Monica turned to Fukushi who had an amused face on him.

"-I'm sorry you were just concentrating so hard. But you should get going. The sooner we are done here the sooner we can leave.-"

"-I want to spend a couple days recovering. If you can keep practicing and we will make it out of this hell together. Just like before.-" Monica sighed with a little impatience. Fukushi simply walked up to her and stood right in front of her. She was surprised when he held her hand. Followed by noticing him placing two small scrolls in her palm as he let go. "-When I am summoned I'll need the extra chakra, those are my last two scrolls.-"

Monica kissed him. Returning the scare she received a moment ago with his own shock.

"-I'll go. for you. Fukushi.-" Monica spoke as Fukushi lightly pushed her off him. She pouted but began walking out of the hot springs down a narrow crevasse. Fukushi watched her go. He sighed before calling after Monica.

"-Please be safe. You're all I have left.-"

Monica stopped and had a chill shoot down her spine. She found herself less worried about Armageddon and more worried about the meaning behind his words. While objectively he was true. They had no home and they often survived by working together. While Fukushi was in a warrior branch, she still had her own skills to bring to the table. However, her recent show of affections had affected the warrior and it was evident by the way he now invested all he knew with her. That scare with the Ro Alliance seemingly shook the cobwebs.

"-I won't die.-" She called back trying to erase the thought from her mind. "-But you must promise me the same. You're all I have left too _.-"_

Fukushi knew he was essentially pushing her into the hornets nest but being non-descript all these years had an advantage he did not. Even if Ro alliance was there, he doubted they would recognise her. The accent may give it away but Monica was cleverer than that.

"-Hmn Uandi and Torro branches working together. There's something no one would have seen back home.-" He sat down and proceeded to make himself as warm and as hidden as possible. "-I should have helped her sooner _.-"_ He clicked his tongue. "-Stupid tradition.-"


	8. Chapter VIII A bad plan set in motion!

**Next chapter in my story. I hope everyone reading it is enjoying it. Comment or review, or message me, i don't bite. Over 1000 views :D I would like a cover image for myself and the story, if someone could be so kind as to help me with that. I'm good at art but fall short on computerized art. Let alone uploading something from a scan.**

 **Phew all caught up, was suddenly too busy to post these. But here is 3 chapters, enjoy them.**

 **More thanks to the ever amazing Missrach.**

Monica spent some time simply wondering down the forest path. The road was little more than trodden earth, winding in between the pine trees and heading downhill slightly to a river, which typically marked the low point in every valley in the region. The foreign girl was slowly muttering phrases in Japanese. This was not to say she wasn't fluent in the language. She was. You could say she considered herself native in the tongue. However, her accent, like Fukushi's, was very thick. So the girl had been trying to tone it down.

As she walked, Monica, unbeknownst to her, managed to find a small burrow. putting her foot through the entrance of the creature's home. She winced as the sudden jolt snapped her out of her trance-like state. Pain spiked sharply through her body. Her injury had re-opened. Great, just got clean too. Instinctively, she rubbed the tender cut on her neck, and analysed her blood-stained fingers, tutting quietly to herself. The Uandi branch member kneeled down, and crossed her hands together to weave signs. A blue banner summoned itself before her, and in a puff of smoke, an old-looking towel appeared by her feet.

Cleaning herself up for the second time, there was one thought that cheered her up. A tavern had appeared. At-least she hoped it was a tavern. From where she was walking, she could only see the back of the building, as the path clearly lead up to the main road next to the building. Her other clue was the strong smell of barley, which had to mean she wasn't hallucinating . For a few years, Fukushi and herself would go to many taverns and drink sake. It was easy to lie about their age, and in all honesty, they still were not at the legal age. Normally shinobi would have a headband to counter such a law, but the pair lacked such attire. A quick show of swords usually satisfied any concerns.

Five minutes, and the violet eyed girl walked into the tavern. The place looked standard with the bar to the left and tables to the right. The bartender was a woman who looked young, but had older, more mature air than Monica by a good few years. The brunette was sighing and looking annoyed, as she ignored the patrons in the bar. They were a group of men, varying sizes and shapes, but all roughly in the same circle. Five in total sat together, and loudly talked about their previous night, as well as throw a few calls to the poor bartender who just wanted a quiet day.

"Mind if I use your wash room?" Monica asked as soon as she stepped in. One hand held her previously summoned rag, while the other flicked off her hood and revealed her messy orange hair. Two sets of turquoise beads dangled like bangs to either cheek. They served to frame her very pretty face, despite her rustic appearance.

"Yeah, just through those doors." Monica walked calmly past the encore of cat calling from the men and went into the small sized washroom.

Closing the door and clicking the bolt locked, the girl sighed heavily to herself. Taking off the cloak, she found a mirror to inspect the damage. 'Great'. She muttered in her own language. In the mirror, she saw what was left of her short robe had a large blot of blood on her left flank. As it was kept together with a ribbon, the damage was easily assessed by peeling the fabric off the wound. She winced at the pain and the sickly sound of the flesh letting go of her attire. The girl was fortunate, though. While the wound reopened, it appeared to have clotted closed once more.

It took a while, but Monica finally emerged from the restroom feeling much cleaner. She looked down momentarily. Part of her was still trying to get used to the scar that was clearly visible under her left jawline. It was the first time she saw for herself how bad the damage was. Having not grown up as a fighter, a scar was a tough pill to swallow.

"Mind if I have a dish of sake please?"

"You look a bit young." The bartender replied. She actually hadn't seen the newcomer until she asked for a drink, but had to stifle a shocked expression when she saw the blood red scar.

"I'm over, I just need a strong drink."

"Oh, I understand. Err, here." She quickly sorted out a dish and poured the clear liquid in. Monica did not say anything until she threw her head back and drank the entire thing.

"Thanks, here, it was fifty ryo?" The orange haired patron laid out the cup gently and quickly produced a small bag from her belt. The bag didn't have much, but it still could cover the costs.

"You're not from around here, are you?"

"Hm?"

"Your accent… Kumo?" She spoke as if she knew the accent well. Although Monica heard some Kumo merchants talk, she also knew she sounded nothing like them.

"Err, Yeah." She lied.

"Hey there, beautiful. Fancy a drink?" It was one of the men who was ogling her since she left the bathroom. She didn't need to turn and see the man. She could smell him.

"I have someone waiting for me."

"Well, I don't see nobody here. Come on baby, we will treat you be-"

"Huji. Leave the girl alone." The bartender snapped.

"Tsk, shut up. We are just being nice."

"I'll get my father on you if you don't behave."

"Alright, alright. Jeez." He waved her off and sat back down in defeat. There was silence before the group started howling in laughter at the poor attempt.

"Sorry about that. They seem to only respect my father, as he controls both their booze and payroll."

"It's fine I should be heading off now, anyway. Need to get to Iwa." Monica spoke with a sweet voice, masking the fact she started shivering just now. Her nerves had spiked up and for some reason she felt very uncomfortable. "Mind if I have another? Fifty Ryo?"

"Oh, don't worry about it. I'll put it on his tab, he did ask." Monica flashed a smile and waited for the drink to be poured.

"Iwa, so your boyfriend is a ninja?"

"In a way. Me and him go a long way back together."

"Aww, that's cute actually. Childhood lovers?"

"Mhm." Steering onto a topic close to her heart managed to calm her down more so than the burning liquid she poured down her throat. She savoured the warm afterglow, though. "I should go. Thank you for the drink." Monica stood up to bow at the bartender, causing the hostess to smile at her politeness. She flicked her hood back on and left the building.

"Hey, do you mind getting more of the sake in the golden bottle?"

The waitress snapped attention back to her other patrons. "Don't you have some place else to go?" She sighed. "Fine. I'll see if there's anymore apple sake." She was only gone for a minute, but returned to an empty bar. I hope she is ok. The girl looked worried but alas she did nothing.

"Hey beautiful." One of the men called out behind Monica. "We didn't catch your name." There it is again. The same nervousness she hoped to never experience. Her lips dried. Her hands shook, and her heart started beating faster. The only thing that she could not understand was why she never felt like this around Fukushi, and they had faced ninja.

"Hey, we're talking to you."

"What do you want? I'm busy."

"Aww, come on, sweetie. We just want to walk with you. It's dangerous."

"Yeah, a pretty thing like you? You won't get to Iwa before dark."

The Uandi wanted to just channel chakra into her legs, and leave those thugs behind, but her body simply did not comply.

"-Shit. Come on. Move.-" She muttered to herself. The five men had caught up, and she could only look at each one as they surrounded her. Why couldn't she move? Genjutsu is a possibility, but she had never felt so tense, not since… Oh.

* * *

She saw a painful flashback to when this all started. Monica was setting up their small home for Fukushi to come back to something a little more comfortable when he finished his job. She had just returned from the shops, but had not realised she had brought home company. She heard a knock on the door and had gone to answer it. Wakizashi still in its scabbard, and tied to the small of her back. Standard practice for her family. At this moment, she only knew basic kenjutsu, and sub-basic chakra control. Fukushi had not started to help her at this point, taking security as his and his alone to deal with.

She opened the door to three large men. They towered over her, and their shoulders almost filled the entire doorframe.

"Is Fukushi in?"

"Err, no… Can I-" Monica couldn't finish as she was kicked back inside their home.

"Great, we could use some fun. That bastard has you all to himself, and that simply won't do."

"Why? Wha-!" She was confused over what was going on. That was until the man gave a sinister, but toothy grin as he tried to untie his belt.

"Hm, maybe he likes them dumb. Bitch, he is clearly just paying you cheap to keep his cock wet. We will even pay triple what he pays you. What do you say?"

"I… -Get out!-" Monica drew her weapon in one quick motion, and pointed the blade. "-I am not some cheap whore, you dickless fuckers.-" Of course no one understood her. They just heard her shout gibberish to them.

"Gah, perhaps she thinks we are cheating her." One of the men further back slowly held up a bag, and shook it. The ryo inside jingled together, its sounded obviously like money.

"I said, fuck off. Whoever told you I did anything like that must have been really drunk." They understood that this time, but none of the trio budged.

"Oh, that is disappointing. You're so beautiful. You could go anywhere with a body like that. Unfortunately, I don't like being disappointed. Grab her. That Fukushi asshole can pay us for sloppy fourths." The men roared with laughter at the very idea.

The leader of the group took a step forth, and Monica swiped with all her might. Her technique was good. Strength was sufficient from her days travelling to Iwa. Her blade was as sharp as razors. It was just bad luck she faced a ninja who had the perfect counter to her attack. The purpled eyed woman jumped, and sliced down on the man. He simply caught the blade in a rock-coated left hand.

The man tugged her close, and with his right hand, he grabbed her by the neck and slammed her through the coffee table. Taking advantage of her downtime, he ripped her top robes off. The ribbon keeping the piece together easily gave the man full view.

"Fuck me, you're hot."

Monica tried with all her strength to push the man off her. Crying as the man painfully grabbed her wrists, and pushed them above her head, barking for someone to hold them for her. She screamed and begged and tried everything in vein to escape. She was overpowered, and her body quickly begun to tire out. She felt his sickly hands pry her legs open. Something snapped in her mind. She took a deep breath in, and forced her every thread of her being into one singularity, and so in a deafening shriek a wall of energy threw her attackers off in every direction. Blue fire coating every surface in the buildings.

* * *

Snapping back to the present, she looked around at the men near her. They were commenting back and forth making snide comments. "Ah, there she is. Welcome back." "You see that? She doesn't like us enough to pay attention." "Maybe she needs something to help her focus." She heard the men behind her move closer towards her. Her breathing was coming faster and faster. Shit. What's happening to me? She saw the men making side glances at each other and nodding, like they knew what they were doing. Like they did this all the time. As they started getting closer and closer, Monica became more and more anxious.

"I said, no!" She pulled out her weapon, and sliced upwards in a reverse grip. A spray of blood and four fingers thrown with her. The world seemed to take a breath in as the man registered the pain now shooting through his left hand. He fell to his knees, and screamed out in agony as he clutched what was left of his left hand.

"You're gonna pay for what you did to our friend, bitch!"

Finally, able to move. She jumped out of the group, before they could catch her.

"Fuck, she's a shinobi."

"The fuck she is… Look, no headband."

"She just knows a few tricks. We still outnumber her." They all started drawing out daggers and swords. Well, one was on the floor sobbing over the damage, taking deep breaths to ween off the pain.

She let out a whimper in fear. She knew she had to run. She had a chance if she ran. Her injury may re-open again, but it was better than… better than… She had to attack. They were running her down. Ducking under a wide swing, she retaliated with another upwards slash, but was denied by a second attack which parried her attempt.

"Don't kill her, you idiots. I am going to make her pay dearly!" The one-handed man charged the group. A knife grazed her arm. What was wrong? She struggled to concentrate. Her mind just screamed 'run' over and over.

The orange haired kunoichi quickly summoned a kunai, and flicked the weapon at the charging man. He tripped trying to dodge the blade, but the moment it connected, the projectile puffed into smoke on his chest.

One man laughed. "See, she is harmless. Just a few tricks."

Monica took the opportunity to gain some distance. Jumping again, she could feel her scar reopen with a foul wet feeling running down her hip. She ran for a minute or two, and expected to have outran them. She turned to see the sharp end of the blade lunge at her. Her foot caught on a root, and the girl tripped over with a yelp.

"-Please. Please- I'm sorry. I'm Sorry!"

"Not good enough!" He growled, out of breath and exhausted. She had been faster, but her mistake was turning around. He took a moment to catch his breath. However, the girl froze up once more, and her window of escaped closed as the others caught up.

"You finally caught her." He took a deep breath in. "That bitch… Fuck me… She's tougher than the…. Usual ones."

"P-please don't do this… y-you… s-s-s-startled me…"

"Don't give us that crap! You cut his fucking hand off." The man who caught her pressed the tip of the blade against her neck. "Honestly, I would rather kill you for that!" She gulped. She could only look through her hair that covered her face since she fell. "Get up. You can make it up to him, I'm sure." He carefully brushed her hair with the tip of the sword. The very tip cutting her cheek. He pulled away only to reach down and grab the girl. Monica could only scream in protest. Her body still refused to run, to fight, to do anything on her command.

"Leaf Hurricane!" The man who reached for her only had time to look up at who shouted. A foot quickly replaced his face, and threw him down the forested hill. A grim crunch echoed throughout the forest as a tree caught the man, breaking his spine in half.

Whoever entered the fray was fast, a green blur to most. Monica could only just keep up, as the second man was disarmed with a kick to the hilt of his weapon. A palmed punch to his chest, then finally a roundhouse kick to the chest again sent the man flying behind the first's exit.

"W-w-w-wait. No. She attacked us! Please! Listen!"

"An unlikely story! I saw the whole thing, you delinquents. How un-youthful to assault a woman in such a way!"

"Fuck you, ya' prick!" One of the other men lunged at him. The green-clad ninja, in one quick motion, grabbed his attacking wrist, pulled him forwards, and with his left elbow, struck the mans face. In under a second, the ninja twisted the knife from his grip, and punched it into the man's throat. All before he hit the ground.

The remaining two turned to flee. The jumpsuit wearing man simply stood victorious. He turned to Monica, and gave her a winning smile with thumbs up. Monica returned the look with utter terror, as she tried in vein to scramble back over the tree.

"Hey shhh. It's okay. We won't hurt you." A soft voice cooed from behind her. She sounded much younger than Monica, and lacked the presence of someone with powerful chakra. The voice quickly walked around to Monica's field of vision. "Can you tell us what happened?"

No reply. She just stared at the young genin and tried to calm down, but her body still pushed to high alert. The terrified woman started hyperventilating, as panic grew within her.

"She's going into shock." Anther genin spoke, recognising the symptoms. "She injured, too… Lee. What should we do?"

"Only the youthful thing, carry her to hospital. I'll do it."

"Wait, I think she's that girl. You remember that injured one, who ran away?"

"Is she?" Lee jumped in front of her, and looked at her closely. She flinched of course. Speaking fast in her native language. The tone was unmistakable she was begging for her life. "Hmm. I don't think she understands us, but we should still bring her in."

"What is she saying?" One of the male genin asked Lee.

"I think she's just scared." The girl replied on her behalf. Lee moved to pick her up. The strange woman clearly protested, but was too weak to properly resist.

"Right. I need you, Dentsu, to fetch Sakura as soon as we reach the city. She is phenomenal at medic jutsu, and it is just what we need."

"On it. Could you help me, Nago?"

"I'll come with."

"Yosh! Let us go!"

Team Shikamaru was quietly walking out of the Tsuchikage's tower. Hinata by Naruto, and Shikamaru in front, while Sakura walked behind the group. The entrance was large as if they expected to fit several people coming in at the same time. In front, were a wide set of stairs that stretched the length of the tower. The team had hardly managed to take a step onto the city square when two genin landed in front of them.

"Sakura!" The genin sounded out of breath.

Wait. Aren't those Lee's genin? They all thought in unison.

"Lee found someone in the forest. She's badly injured, and we think she's that girl from the other day. Though, we have not found her partner."

A harmonious "oh" left everyone's mouth as each member remembered that day.

"Alright, has she been taken to the hospital?"

"Yes."

"Sakura, I think I will come with you. I have an idea, and I want to prove it." Shikamaru added. The rosette simply nodded in acknowledgment.

"You should hurry. She fell into a state of shock when we found her… err, attacked."

An hour passed since Sakura had stormed the hospital. Her medic intuition forced all lesser doctors and nurses out of her way. She made light work of her injuries, but it was quickly apparent she had just reopened an older injury, and had the fright of her life. She had ordered Naruto and Hinata to find her some new clothes, because the ones she currently had were ruined from the altercation. Fortunately, she had Lee's Genin at her disposal, and left Omi in charge of looking after the sleeping woman. The pinkette left the room rubbing ethanol into her hands to clean them.

* * *

Meanwhile, Naruto was standing outside of the girls changing rooms inside of a store in the little shopping mall. It was fortunate that Hinata was a similar size to their injured guest, if a little larger bust size. Naruto blushed as he thought about how Hinata looked, but shook his head. Damn it Jiraiya, even after all this time…

Hinata had finished picking a few items of clothes, trying to get something similar to what the girl would wear. Now, she was picking something for herself. Or more accurately, for Naruto. Apparently, the fashion in Iwa had moved onto bright colours, and orange was one of them. When Naruto spotted it, she had suggested she could try it on. She liked orange, almost as much as Naruto. But wearing something this bright made her feel exposed, like she was the centre of attention. The smile and attention from Naruto made it more than worth it, though.

The Hyuuga managed to hear the tell-tale whisper of 'beautiful' under Naruto's breath.

"Me, or the dress?" Hinata blushed deeply, and it caught Naruto off guard. Fortunately, thinking of Jiraiya had reminded the shinobi of the correct response to such a question.

"Y-you." He stuttered slightly, but passed it off as being stunned.

"T-thank you. I'll get it, in that case. We should go n-now, though." She had such a soft voice, and Naruto couldn't help but smile and nod. Five minutes later and Hinata was back in her lavender coloured jacket. She carried the carefully folded dress and walked up to the cashier.

"I'll pay for it." Naruto offered.

"Ano, you s-sure?"

"Of course, it is my favourite colour after all."

Hinata smiled, and gave a nod. Pushing her purchase to her love. He carefully took the garment from her and paid for it. Standing behind them, they heard someone in the line comment, "such a gentleman!" Hinata had known Naruto to go shopping with either Ino or Sakura, sometimes Tenten. But she knew she had one advantage. Never once did Naruto complain in her company. Perhaps she is slowly persuading him there is more to life than just friends.

* * *

Monica opened her eyes. She knew she was somewhere comfortable, and her body felt rested for once. No pain this time. She blinked confused. There was a roof above her. She was sure she was in the forest a moment ago.

"-God that was embarrassing. I froze up that bad?-" She whispered, but then let out a heavy and shaky sigh. Still feeling nervous. The Uandi tried to calm her shaking hands. Was it nerves or feeling alone? Her mind had flipped to a great feeling of isolation. With Fukushi, she felt she could take on the world, but now she just felt so paralysed.

"Sorry, what did you say?" A kind, but curious voice snapped her out of her thoughts. Immediately, Monica leaped out of bed, and reached for her wakizashi only to find it was not tied to her. In fact, she was wearing a pale green gown. If the sudden breeze proved anything, it was the knowledge that she wore little else. She summoned a kunai in her left hand. It looked like she just shook her wrist, and one emerged.

The genin across the room backed off, with her hands out in front.

"Woah! Woah! I'm not gonna hurt you. We saved you. Remember? The forest? You've been through a lot, but I'm a friend!" Omi frantically explained. Almost simultaneously, Monica was also asking questions, but forgetting one important detail.

"-Stay back! Who are you? What you you want? Where am I? What's going on?-" Monica clasped her hand over her mouth as Omi looked at her really curiously.

"S-sorry. I don't understand you? I, err… My name is Omi. What's yours?" The genin with the purple face paint spoke slowly and pointed to herself, then to Monica with careful and deliberate movements.

The orange haired woman had another reaction. Backing off, she dropped her kunai, which puffed into a ball of smoke through lack of concentration.

Her mind was berating itself for being so stupid, and revealing too much about her. She was supposed to be invisible, dammit. Her own thoughts quickly drowned out everything else, and the poor girl broke down in front of Omi. Sobbing into her hands and feeling overwhelmed, she couldn't control her emotions. She tried to reassure herself that speaking two languages was a hard feat, and it was okay to mix it up once in a while. After all, she sometimes spoke Japanese to Fukushi. This did not work very well as she fell into despair. She heard Omi run out, likely to get other people.

"Still in shock, huh?" Monica heard another voice. Much more powerful, but still feminine. Kind of like she knew what she was doing, after all the hospital was her domain of expertise. "Shikamaru, you are gonna have to wait a bit before you question her."

"This is a drag. I think she is an important piece of the puzzle. Her and her partner are the only oddities we've heard about." A male voice outside the room muttered.

The door burst open and a tall pink haired woman wearing a red combat kimono walked through. "Thought you said she was armed?"

"I, err.. it puffed into smoke." Omi spoke, she followed Sakura into the room. She was less confident of course.

"Shadow weaponry? Interesting."

"Well, we know the pair must be more than normal civilians." The male voice added.

"-Crap-" She muttered. Monica had given up way too much information. Sakura paid no attention, and simply picked the girl up again and placed her on the bed.

"There. Much more comfortable." She sounded like a mother, even though she was only a couple years older at most. She leaned over and hugged the strange girl, hushing at her, trying to soothe her sobbing. Sakura had assumed she was still just stressed from being attacked, being as comforting as possible to support her charge. She had seen Tsunade try this with a few patients before, but the comforting type just wasn't her thing. It looked more like she was about to crush the victim, not comfort them.

After a few minutes, Monica calmed down. She was still sniffling and hugging her knees closely.

"My name is Sakura. You know Omi, and the guy back there is Shikamaru." Sakura pointed to each person as she spoke. Monica watched through her hair which had found its way back in front of her face.

"M-Monica." Their patient finally spoke. Albeit, very quietly. There was a collective sigh. She could understand them.

"How are you feeling?" Sakura asked again, rubbing her shoulder.

"L-lonely." She wished it was an act, but the harsh truth was she had not felt this lonely since the realisation that she had lost her family and home.

"And, err… where's your partner?"

Monica held her breath. Had they known? Crap this was not good. Wait think… I must not make things worse. "Gone…" Half true, in a way.

Sakura sighed sadly. She had feared this since they ran away the first time. "I'm sorry for your loss." She swallowed some sadness down. She knew exactly what it feels like to lose someone. "I'll put you under Lee's students' care. You'll like them. They are real characters. Omi, are you alright looking after Monica here?"

"Y-Yeah, she just scared me that's all." She offered her hand to Monica. "Here, you can stay with me."

"Hey, err.. is she up?" Naruto asked, just as she walked in. Hinata followed suit, and held two brown bags, handing one of them to Omi.

"Yeah, gave Omi a fright, though." Shikamaru answered. "I'd like to speak with her tomorrow, if you could come and find me, Omi. Let her get some rest though." He let Omi and Monica find some changing rooms to get into her new clothes. Honestly, Omi had almost forgotten she was in a gown still.


	9. Chapter IX Settling in to her new role!

**Next chapter ready to go. still writing more of the woodsman so keep an eye on the sky.**

 **Thank you Missrach for editing my writing. Hopefully I am still getting better.**

Monica felt strange. Partly because of her new clothes; a pair of dark leggings and suitable boots for a Genin level ninja. Higher level ninja tend to use lighter sandals or understand their abilities enough for specific footwear. For Genin, boots were most practical. She wore a beige coloured coat, neutral in taste. She also wore a charcoal skirt underneath, although the coat was long enough to cover most of her appearance.

Omi hardly spoke a word, but stole glances at the scar that lined her left jaw, loose hair doing little to cover up her injury. At least it felt healed, though, and for the first time in ages, clean. Grasped in her hand was her sword. Given back to her as they felt she was not a threat. In all honesty, Monica felt that she really was harmless compared to the shinobi and kunoichi she passed. They were all giving off vibes of intimidation and this, by far, made her feel nervous.

"Ah urm, we are here. You're safe with us." Omi spoke out, trying to stay calm but showed to be just as nervous about her mission at hand as Monica was about being there.

"T-thanks." The foreign shinobi whispered.

They quietly entered a large building made of yet more stone. Inside, the décor was much homelier. Aside from the foyer, which had wooden flooring, giving the option to change from regular shoes to house shoes, the floor was covered in blue coloured carpet, which from the pair's point of view seemed to lead off up every entrance out of the foyer. Stairs at the back led up to two wings on either side. Chatter came from the doorway to the left, while the smell of food came from the right.

"This is like a hostel for all the visiting Genin." Omi explained. "I, err, would you like to be introduced to, um … or… I guess you can stay in my room."

"Omi? Is that you?" A voice called just before a young Genin who Monica can only just recognise.

"Nago? Oh, this is Monica." She barely had introductions when Nago was by the taller girl and gave her a big smile before pulling her hand into his own.

"You're alive! Wow, I finally get to meet you. Let's talk! I wanna know everything!" Giving such a vague question, Monica remained silent. She gave a shy smile before slipping her hand out of his grip.

"I, err, want to see where I am s-staying." Monica said but mentally cringed as she felt how much of an accent she had compared to everyone here. Nago's curiosity spiked when he heard her voice clearly for the first time. Even a few more Genin for other villages had poked their heads out to see who got Nago so excited.

"Nago, leave the woman alone." The third teammate groaned slightly annoyed voice. "She's been through a lot." Admittedly a poor choice of words as now he could feel questions being directed at him by other students.

"R-right, Monica follow me." She stepped up and whispered at Nago. "Please go easy on her. She… She lost her friend." Nago only replied with an 'oh' and stepped back off her.

Monica glanced to each person before bowing respectively and followed Omi up the stairs.

* * *

"So, what if she was the partner to who we are looking for?" A rosette asked to her team.

"She fits the description." Shikamaru calmly replied. "That leaves us as to why she is here. There's two possibilities. Either she's told the truth and her partner ended up dead, and their plans have fallen apart. Or this was set up in hopes of getting into the village, of which she has succeeded."

"Is Lee's team in danger?" Hinata asked.

"Doubt it." Shikamaru took a cigarette and lit it with Asuma's old lighter. This earned him the glares of his entire team, which he ignored. "From what we know, the power dynamic is with the other one. She is presumably Genin level, if that. So long as she isn't pushed which I doubt Lee's Genin would even dream of doing such things."

"We could test her skills with some of Lee's training?" Naruto added. "It would prove if she has blue fire or not."

"That's not a bad idea, hmm." The Nara clan head took a long deep breath from his nose. A thick cloud of smoke blasting from his nostrils. "I also believe that Druarni wants to question her, too."

"So, we should ask Lee?" Sakura confirmed.

"Yeah, I don't see the harm in it. When I'm stressed, training helps me." Naruto replied.

"You're not normal, though." Sakura shot back, earning a small snigger off Hinata, making Naruto turn to her and raise an eyebrow.

"O-oh, urm, it's why everyone likes you, though." Hinata complemented, blushing at the cheeks. She secretly corrected herself as 'why she liked him so much'.

"I guess." Naruto gave a warming smile at Hinata's reply which made her blush. Something that did not go unnoticed by Sakura or Shikamaru. "So, should we go and find Lee?"

* * *

Monica sat on her new bed and sighed heavily. The Futon on the wooden floor was comfortable enough, especially considering she usually slept outside. The room was small, yet cosy. It contained a single bed, fully made. A chest of draws, full of Omi's clothes. Lastly, there was a door leading to an ensuite bathroom. Omi had left her alone for a while which suited Monica fine, but the foreign girl couldn't help but feel isolated.

Taking a deep slow breath out, she stood up and walked to the bathroom. Inside was very clean with a couple of bars of soap and a towel being the only invading objects to the tiled room. The door clicked by the lock and Monica turned on the shower. Slowly, she stripped and stepped into the hot water. Her hands were surprisingly rough compared to the natural smooth skin. Looking to her left and above the sink she could see her reflection. Horrified, she jumped back and slipped in the shower with a heavy bang.

"-Ah no no no no no no-" She muttered to herself in her own tongue. For a split second, she did not see herself, but a large man grabbing her from behind. The scared woman could practically feel those sickening fingers wrap themselves around her chest. She felt sick. Flopping out of the shower, she reached for the toilet and spewed out what was left of her stomach contents. Fortunately, not much; but it still burned her throat.

Arms weak, her elbows shook violently as if they were about to snap under her weight. Monica spat some of the acid out as she took deep drags of oxygen. Slowly, she stood up to face the mirror. A mix of fear and the need to know. For now, her eyes were closed. She focused on the one thing she knew brought her safety; Fukushi.

Purple eyes faced purple eyes and she was once more alone in the bathroom. Her orange hair was currently soaked and stuck to her scalp. Her bangs and beads were very much tangled in the strands now. Water ran down her body. Her skin was tanned in some areas and porcelain white in others. Bruises adorned in several patches along with many minor scars throughout her travels. Monica instinctively ran her hand up the worst of the scars. It may have only happened a week ago, but it had felt like the scar existed for her entire life. Whoever healed her had managed to fade the angry blood red colour of her fresh scars into a flushed pink colour which glistened from the smooth tissue.

A Knock on the door. "A-Are you alright? I heard a loud bang." A soft voice called.

"I just slipped."

"Alright. When you're done, there is someone here to see you."

"Give me a few minutes… please."

Omi did not reply. Instead, she left the room to see that the kunoichi from Kumo had made herself at home in the common room. She was elegant with standard, uniform and bandages covered her arms, only exposing her fingertips. Aside from that, she was unarmed to the point she lacked an ammo pack custom to many shinobi. However, it would be prudent to not write her off as defenceless.

"She's just taking a shower. Could I get you anything Madam?" Omi spoke politely.

"Please, just call me Druarni dear. And no, thank you on your offer. I just want to see the girl for myself."

"She seems popular." The Genin slapped her hands over her mouth. It was not her place to comment.

"It's okay to be curious; asking questions makes you a good ninja. Yes. She is popular. Have you noticed her accent?" Omi nodded, her hair bobbed with her. "Well, we don't think she is from here. By here, I don't just mean Iwa or the land of Earth. No, I mean not even from the five elemental nations. I hope to help her, but I worry her distrust for us is too far imbedded. Which is why I'd like you to make her feel as welcomed as possible."

"W-when we found her she was being chased by men wanting to hurt her."

"Hm.. such a grim world we live in."

"W-what do you mean?"

"I've lived through two ninja wars. I don't think I was much older than you when I killed someone for the first time. I don't know what you've been taught in Konoha, but this is the real world. We've achieved peace, but at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives. Even if all five nations are allies now for the first time, we've all been struggling more than ever before. That girl may have had the raw end of the stick, but know that she is not the only one. Far from it."

The young girl looked down. "I didn't know. Though, in all honesty, I kinda had an idea."

"Don't get me wrong, I want peace just as much as everyone, but the world is still far too dark."

"Urm, you wanted to s-see me?" Monica's voice was sweet as she tried to cover her accent, although she gave a sigh when she failed once again.

"Yes, I have a few questions for you if that is alright."

"I.. e-sure." Monica blushed slightly.

"Omi dear, I am going to find somewhere private to talk to our guest. If anyone asks for me, just say I'll be back soon."

"Yes. I'll wait here."

"Come, It's Monica, right?"

Despite getting the feeling of dread, the Uandi branch member had no choice but to comply. Just by looking at the woman, she knew she was outclassed; 'war hardened' if what she overheard was true. She was lead up the hotel to the attic rooms, and after a quick search they found an empty and unused room.

The room looked almost identical to the floor below. Albeit, much colder, as the heating seemed to be off. The large windows were now too high to be influenced by the city's light and Monica could see that it was evening, around seven o clock.

Druarni walked calmly to the window, past the sofas and the coffee table, taking a moment to look out the window on the city around. They were high but clearly many buildings reached right up beyond their view point. It was a nice scene as a long waterfall was in clear view that cascaded down through the levels in the city.

After taking a deep breath, the woman turned to face Monica.

"I'll be blunt. Who are you?" The young woman blinked blankly at her. She had heard stories that shinobi were supposed to somehow know everything. Druarni took this as a note to explain herself. "You are civilian class citizen, yet clearly have a reasonable level of chakra, shinobi training to boot. Normally, this would be simple; you would have been thrown into T and I and we would have everything we need. Yet, you aren't a ninja and the laws dictate you have to go through civilian procedures. Which means we need a crime and you have not committed one, at least not that we know of. Our hands are collectively tied until we know what to do with you."

Her eyes trained on the orange haired woman and scanned to see if there was anything to indicate. She seems very ordinary. Purple eyes are highly uncommon. They show fear for sure, not mentally trained as a shinobi. Yet, after a longer look she has the look of 'too much' in them. Beads in her hair, they looked like jade which was expensive, yet they seemed too dark to be jade. Cultural icon, but of where from? Dress is a deep purple and a belt tied around her waist. Unimportant. Sword tied to her back, presumably to be pulled out in a defensive stance. Given how she was found, I am not surprised with her being armed, but the blade is meant to be concealed and the suggested stance indicates she has had at least some kenjutsu training.

"While this could be easily described, and you are defined as a civilian with some training. It's actually very common, especially for richer families who don't want the ninja life. but need to protect themselves. But we do not know who you are. Your accent is certainly not from Iwa, and I have had my fair share of travels, so you're not from anywhere I know. That alone makes you dangerous."

Druarni finished her speech and stood there expecting an answer. Monica stood and looked to one side as if she was choosing her words carefully. She sighed heavily and swallowed down some tears that threatened to escape. It was a painful memory after all and the Kumo kunoichi noted that down.

"It does not matter where I'm from. I doubt it exists anymore." Monica spoke carefully and slowly. Information was everything but thinking it through. Her origins were never going to pay dividends to whoever knew.

"Try me."

"Yuuhi. Outside Solaris."

"Setting sun? Hmm." Druarni tried to think if she knew anywhere called as such. She was ready to call her a liar, but her gut instinct protested. Surely if a village was to be removed recently, she would have heard it unless it was covert ops by another village. Monica's age was far too young for something to happen before her time.

"Okay, that gets a pass. But back to my first question. Who are you?"

"Monica."

"Need a bit more than that. And I wouldn't test my patience, either." Monica took a step back under the killing intent emanating from Druarni. She was obviously outclassed here. Maybe if Fukushi was here she would have a chance, but right now she froze in fear.

"M-Monica Uandi, branch o-of the Solaris family."

Names that she had not heard either. "You better not be lying to me."

"I-I'm not." Monica looked down she felt like she was being scolded by a parent.

"Your villages name and your surname match though?"

"It's just how it is." Monica kept on looking away. Druarni decided to drop it, figuring it was a cultural thing.

"Who are you loyal to?"

"No o-one."

"Ro Alliance?"

"No." She spat out under her breath. She really did betray her emotions and it spoke volumes. The information was correct, therefore she must have been that girl Hideki Morrotoshi mentioned. Of course, it could be a coincidence.

"So, you are alone?"

"F-Fukushi." She whispered.

"Did you kill four ANBU under the Iwa banner?"

Monica remained silent. She had worked out where this was going. She remembered attacking the group, but neither really understood the weight of their actions. All they knew was they were highly skilled shinobi who could only do so much against someone who could teleport.

"Did this Fukushi kill them?"

Again silence.

"What can you tell me about him? Is he a relative? From the same place as you?"

Druarni scrutinised every reaction despite her remaining silent. She really did lack the formal training over her emotions.

"Oh, you loved him. No.. still love. He isn't dead, is he?" Finally, a large reaction from Monica her head snapped to attention. She hoped they had bought it but, she was wrong.

"Well, thank you for being so enlightening. I'm afraid you will have to come with me to answer those murders. I do request for you to come quietly and you shall not be hurt."

"W-what are y-you going to d-do to Fuku?" Her words were about as shaken as her entire body.

"That will be up to the Tsuchikage."

"No."

"No?" Monica's right hand slipped behind her back to reach for the hilt of her weapon. Druarni whom was fully expecting her to attack with a reversed grip slash across her chest. "I wouldn't fight me if I were you. I'll be forced to restrain you."

"I won't let you. I will do anything for Fuku, you bitch. If that means I die to protect him, then I'll gladly take that burden."

Predictably she launched forward and slashed her wakizashi around as fast as she could. Druarni took a step back and slammed her hand on the pummel of the sword hard, before spinning in to cut Monica off with her left elbow to her throat, stopping only mere centimetres from dealing a winning blow.

The older woman took a step back with a grunt of pain. The sickening sound of flesh on steel as she removed herself off Monica's Kunai. She gripped her right flank tightly as her white flak jacket became stained with her blood.

"I see, you can use jutsu without hand signs. Bloodline? Someone of your calibre shouldn't manage such a thing."

Instead of feeling belittled, Monica just smiled. "Isn't he great at teaching me? I was not supposed to know any jutsu. That night, right after I burned those who tried to rape me, he changed his mind and Fuku realised that he could not be around me forever." She giggled a little. "Obviously you won't know this, but I am from a minor branch." Now she gave an outright laugh. "He broke centuries of tradition and code just for me."

"I made a mistake to underestimate you. That won't happen a second time." Druarni immediately let go of her injury and weaved several hand signs. Just as she was about to finish and release her jutsu, Monica threw her kunai into a better position. Gripping the blade by the tip, she threw it like a throwing knife. Quickly reacting, Kumo slapped her hands together to catch the blade. Drawing back as if she was about to return the kunai to Monica,

the projectile exploded, taking her hand with it. Druarni screamed out in pain and grabbed what was left of her left hand, cursing as she momentarily lost balance.

"Kunai aren't real. Only I can hold them safely." Monica gloated as her free hand weaved signs of her own. She was slow, deliberate, in an effort to cover the fact she was still learning to use the jutsu.

"You… I'm going to kill you for taking my hand." The Kumo kunoichi leaped up and charged down her opponent. While genjutsu and ninjutsu were out of the window, she still had far superior taijutsu.

"-Fire Style: Fireball-"

"What?" The woman managed to say before a blue fireball burst out from the outstretched arm. It landed dead centre in her chest. Had she been a second too slow, she could have dodged it. A second faster and she could have finished the fight as the victor.

The older woman was blown back into the kitchen area and crushed the cabinets, plates and glass fragments showering the injured body. The smell of burnt flesh filling the room.

Her chest rose and fell slowly. Pain had paralysed the veteran ninja, and try as she could, she was defeated by someone not even half her age. She had been so sure she had figured Monica out. But all it took was a couple of surprise moves and now she was going to die. At least it was to die fighting. Somehow, she knew that Arra would have preferred it this way, too. Her only regret was she couldn't die alongside her husband.

Monica stood above her with the sword pointed at her throat. She was sure the look of a killer was glaring at her. It was all about the value of mere seconds. For example, had Monica kept up her rage a second longer the cold steel would have claimed the life of Druarni.

"-No, no no no. I should not be doing this. I was supposed to be on recon and escape.-" Druarni looked at her puzzled. Or as puzzled as her body would allow. Monica withdrew her blade started muttering to herself. It sounded like she was berating herself. "-They are going to find the body. They'll know it's me for sure. What to do. Think. Think. What would Fukushi do?-" She dropped her sword and fell to her knees. "-He'll die if I fuck this up. He trusted me.-"

As Monica debated with herself, the heavy doors of sleep slowly dragged her under. She felt exhausted, perfectly aware it was because she was losing blood quickly. Pain also seemed to fade away into nothingness. Her body grew numb and therefore comfortable. She couldn't hear the rest of her fate. Not that she understood. Or, at this moment in time, cared.

In the end, Monica could not bring herself to kill. Her self-doubt was enough to stay her blade. She quietly left after sealing the door with her fire infused chakra, fusing the lock beyond use.

* * *

Later that night, Monica was laying on her futon. The soft snores from Omi were backed with the pitter patter of rain against the window. Her eyes were wide open as she stared at the celling. Sleep did not find her, despite never being somewhere this comfortable in months. The thought that Omi could sleep so soundly next to a killer unnerved her.

Honestly, she could be jealous of Omi. She'd give anything to be as innocent as her. Not even questioning the fact Druarni did not return. Yet, she lived a life so unstable and fluid. Knowing Fukushi's plan made her knowledgeable of the things that are about to happen and it was doubtful they would live. Unlike Omi whom, by contrast, was sure she would live for a while yet. Her life had a natural course to follow and without effort she would have the life she wants. Still, there was little point to dwell over it. All that mattered to Monica was Fukushi and she promised that no one would get in her way.

Next morning Monica found herself waking to loud knocking. Her heart had skipped a beat momentarily until she heard who was speaking. She was sure it was Omi's teammates. Nago and Dentsu she seemed to remember. Omi obviously did not have the discipline to sleep lightly. A skill essential to survival. Silently, she got up and quickly got dressed. Another sweet thing about Omi was her mint-green night gown. If given the choice she would sleep in just underwear. Last night she even surprised Omi because the Genin was not expecting her room-mate to suddenly strip for bed.

Tying the broach of her cloak around the neck, she finally answered the door, which rattled with the knocking the entire time Monica spent getting dressed. Monica gave a deadpan look at the two boys in front of her. Both weren't expecting Monica to be the one answering the door.

"She's asleep." Monica spoke plainly. The two boys were expecting someone more timid given the circumstances, but the lack of decent sleep made Monica blunt. The Uandi pushed passed the pair with a light nudge. She heard Nago try to wake her teammate, only to hear her squeak 'pervert' and slap the poor lad. Nago promptly exited the room with a red handprint on his face.

"That woke her up."

"Such an idiot, Dentsu."

"You know how she is."

"C-can you stop t-talking about me, p-please?"

"Embarrassed we'd talk about you to your new friend?"

Monica raised her eyebrow. She was not here to make friends. Honestly, she needed to find somewhere quiet to herself. Somewhere away from… people. She quickly hid her hand into her cloak. She hadn't realised quite how much it was shaking. She did not understand it. Why did her body act as this way?

"Speaking of which, could you tell us more about you?" Nago turned to face their new addition.

"I must admit, you are very unusual." Dentsu added.

Monica glanced to one side before swallowing and calming herself.

"Can I have a glass of… s-sake?" She doubted they had any, but if they did it would help her nerves.

"Playin' it cool? I dig it." Nago smirked.

"I don't recommend alcohol this early. Besides, we don't have any. Nor are we old enough."

"Always the party pooper."

"Just saying. Would coffee help instead?"

"Mn. Sure. Thanks." Monica quietly replied.

"Not much of a talker?"

"Nago, not cool, remember how we found her." Dentsu walked over to the kitchenette while Monica glanced over as he moved around her.

"S-sorry if I stepped over the line." Nago apologised. "Omi, wake up. Lee-Sensei wants us outside ASAP."

"R-right." Omi called through the door although it was quiet.

"It's ok. I'm sorry for being so quiet… I've been through a lot." Monica sighed and looked down.

"I can't even imagine. Honestly seeing you out there… puts things into perspective." Dentsu spoke thoughtfully as he handed Monica a mug of coffee.

Monica gave him a quizzing look.

"Let's just say Nago will be having nightmares for ages."

"Oi!" Nago snapped back, trying to not be uncool in front of the woman. "Bastard." He muttered.

"Come on, you wouldn't shut up about it."

"First time seeing that?" Monica asked before Nago gave a begrudged nod.

"Get used to it." Monica spoke with venom. She got the feeling all these Genin were too naïve. If she had to give them advice, it would be for them to open their eyes. Get real. See that there is more to the world than their coddled lifestyle. Situations could turn sour at a moments' notice and that was the lesson herself and Fukushi learned the hard way.

"A-are w-we ready?" Omi finally emerged from her bedroom. She was dressed in neat but conservative clothing; a long cream-coloured jacket and what looked to be black tights underneath. Her brown hair was a neat shoulder length with two bangs framing her face. Her cheeks held her clan markings of purple paint carefully applied under her eyes. Presumably what took the longest.

"W-what am I to do while you're gone?" Monica asked, hoping she was to be left alone. She still had to locate two pages, and even though she managed to get into Iwa, she was now tangled in with the shinobi here.

"Well, apparently a team of leaf Jonin have taken an interest in you. So, according to Lee-sensei, you're coming with us to spar." Monica frowned at this. Someone else to take interest in her. So much for being low key.

"I ,err, take it they are the same shinobi who allowed me to stay with you?"

"Yeah, that's them." Nago's face seemed to light up.

"Sakura and Shikamaru are their names, right?"

"Hinata, and Naruto too. All of them are Hero's of the forth Ninja War." Nago seemed to speak highly of them and knowing they were war veterans did not settle well with the foreigner.

"I, err, didn't know." Monica blushed from embarrassment. While she was well aware of the Shinobi war, she had no idea of any key figures or events. Ro alliance had kept her and Fukushi away from the conflict in case it arrived to Iwa.

"Yosh! They are the most powerful shinobi I know! If anything needs to be done, leave it to my eternal rival to accomplish it with the full fury of his youthful heart." Lee burst into the door, apparently tired of waiting. The room collectively deadpanned at his sudden entrance. Although Monica inadvertently flinched having not expecting such a character. He looked just as intense as he sounded. Wearing nothing but a green spandex jumpsuit that 'hugged' his body way too tightly. His face was the second unnerving feature; wide eyes, thick eyebrows and still donning the bowl-cut hair.

"Monica! I don't believe you could possibly forget your saviour." He leaped in front of her to get a closer look, to which Monica retreated, nervously glancing around for a way out.

"Lee-sensei you need to give her some space. Stop creeping her out." Nago called.

"Please accept my apologies. I was under the impression you had not woken up yet and had slowed my team down for their youthful warm-up."

"It was not her that made us late. It was Omi again." Said girl looked down because Dentsu had ratted her out again and was waiting for the scalding. Instead, Lee gave her a fierce thumbs' up.

"Not an issue! I will aid you in your endeavour to wake up in a savoury time! But now, all of you come. We are to see my eternal rival!" He left as quickly as he arrived, and the Genin team knew better than to be left behind.

"I-is he u-usually like t-that?" Monica's breath caught on itself, as she couldn't help but feel nervous given the close proximity of the male. And the connotation usually associated to that situation.

"Yeah… he's harmless really." Omi who now stood by Monica's side spoke.

"Unless you count death by exercise as harmful." Nago pointed out as they walked out of their apartment. Monica had no choice to follow as no excuse came to mind quickly enough. Lee had thrown her enough as it is.


	10. Chapter X It can only go downhill!

**Great, forgot to sort out the name tags for this story aswell… making it 3/3 stories I managed to make that mistake on.**

 **Comment and review if you're enjoying the story and thank you for reading.**

 **Thanks to Missrach for editing and keeping me on track.**

Lee leading the way, with the Genin following and Monica in tow, walked at a brisk pace down the main avenue of Iwagakure. The road was divided in two at this point, to allow one of the many famous streams of the mountain city to go about its own course. Flanking on either side were tall buildings made with either natural stone or newer glass designs with several interconnecting bridges and walkways. Without a map, it was possible to get horribly lost in such a large and complex settlement. Despite feeling so small compared to the city around them, the mountains rose higher giving the feeling of enclosed space. Monica had heard the village being referred to as the "impassable fortress of stone" before.

Being the first time, she was able to get a decent look around the village, and honestly it was just like she had heard. Her old home was claustrophobic by comparison. Existing inside a hollowed-out mountain on houses not built by skilled artisans, the entire place was lit by artificial lighting and stank of struggle.

Now they seemed to be climbing up a steep path to a higher section of the city. Officially, this part was more for the shinobi than civilian as the frequency of off-duty men and women who still wore Iwa headbands were greater. They were a range of ages. If Monica had to guess, the majority were Genin or lower, if age and skill had much of a correlation.

Once they reached the top, they passed a large building overlooking the city. Monica only had enough to time to read 'academy' before she was pulled from her thoughts.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Omi's voice was soft as she noticed Monica looking around.

"Reminds me of my home." Monica spoke as if she was hypnotised. Omi was right; they could see right down the valley from here. See where the forest of pinewood grew the thickest only to reveal hints of many hamlets and villages hiding away. Waterfalls and streams seemed to be still in the distance and sides of mountains reached up into the clouds which hugged around their snowy peaks.

"Could you tell me about it?"

"Hm? Honestly, I hardly remember it."

"Oh sorry… I didn't mean to." Omi quickly bowed in apology.

"It's alright. I was eleven when it all happened."

"When what happened?"

"I'd rather not think about it."

"Oh." Silence fell between them once more as they carried on walking.

"It was a huge place. Everything was built in marble or polished stone. Coloured tiles were used to decorate everything. Fields of crops seemed to go on forever and just wait till you saw the sea. On clear days, you could almost see the curvature of the planet, and it just expanded out until the sky met the horizon."

"Wow, that does sound nice."

"Home always does." Monica sighed once more. "It hurts knowing I'll never see it, though."

"Aww, don't say that."

"No. You don't understand it was burned down to ashes. Or at least that was my last memory of the place."

Omi just looked at her senior in shock. She did not know anyone who had lost anything, let alone everything, and so couldn't understand what Monica must be going through.

"D-do you h-have a home, n-now?"

"No… but. I have someone precious to me. He keeps me going." They had been so engrossed in their conversation, that they had not realised they had walked into the training field where Naruto, Shikamaru, Hinata and Sakura were waiting. Four more shinobi stood as well, all of which donned the symbol of sand on their forehead.

Naruto was the only one to hear those words from Monica. The uncanniness to Haku, his first enemy along with Zazuba, and her philosophy which in turn forged Naruto's own ideals. However, just like his first conversation with Haku, Naruto was unaware she was supposed to be his enemy.

"Precious?"

"I hold him above life itself. He's all I have left. What about you? Is there someone precious to you?"

"T-to me? W-what do you mean?"

"True strength com-"

"I have not heard that philosophy in a long time, ya-know?" Naruto interrupted which caused Monica to flinch back and blush. "But, you're right. True strength comes from protecting those you love."

Monica bit her tongue back, worried she said too much again. But allowed herself to breathe once more when Naruto seemed to approve, and Omi looked at her in awe.

"Alright, we are going to have a small sparing match, Mrs…" Shikamaru interrupted. Having already worked out a hypothesis and just needed to test it now.

"Oh, err. Uandi."

"Mrs. Uandi. Normally, we would assume you to have civilian levels of chakra, but we have reason to believe otherwise and on behalf of Iwa, we'd like to test your potential." Shikamaru continued.

A woman emerged from the crowd and unlike the others, Monica knew the Iwa headband. Which was partly hidden behind her black hair. Her attire was standard for Iwa shinobi, brown flack jacket with red shinobi clothes underneath. Her other notable feature were her pink eyes of which Monica couldn't help but gaze into them.

"My name is Kurotsuchi. You've brought quite the crowd."

"Er, e-excuse m-me, but why is everyone s-so interested?" ' _Do they know?_ ' Monica thought to herself. Glancing at all angles, she had the sudden urge to run. But wouldn't that give the game away? Prove there was something to hide? Shikamaru was analysing her reactions intently.

"The world is cruel. And you're a survivor. Something we could do with. So, naturally, when the report of some potentially capable individuals arrived at my desk, I naturally took interest. It seems sensible to always seek for great potential in the land of Earth."

Something seemed off, but her hands were tied here. Monica felt like a pit opened up in her stomach. She was supposed to be a normal civilian who ended up rescued. Not recruited and she was running out of time to help Fukushi from the inside. She tried her best to hide the panic that was building inside her. Subtle signals that the ninja around her must be able to soak up.

"F-forgive me. I'm n-not a ninja."

"Well, we all came up here to test that. I'd prefer to leave with an answer if that is alright with you."

Her cheeks were flushed, and Monica swallowed as she glanced at each person around her. Eight ninjas from the leaf. Four from the sand and one from Iwa.

"I'll spar." Omi raised her voice as loud as she can, still not trying to be the centre of attention. But understanding how it felt to be new, she wanted to help her new friend.

"Yosh! An excellent choice young Omi. I can feel the flames of youth burning inside you now!"

Everyone deadpanned at the sudden outburst. Lee then coughed loudly. "I believe it is an excellent choice as Genin would be appropriate, considering we are in the company of someone untrained."

"Very well." Kurotsuchi replied. They could always have a second battle if Monica proved to be superior. She leaned into Shikamaru, whispering into his ear. "So, we are looking for blue fire." Shikamaru gave a subtle nod. They had found Druarni unconscious in the attic rooms of the Genin hotel. She was managed to create enough noise to attract the cleaner, but passed out once more after saying 'it's the girl'. Arra was mortified over the news, and if he was not sweet-talked by Kurotsuchi, their only lead to solving the entire mystery would have been killed for sure. All the clues were lined up, they were just missing the male member of the duo.

Shikamaru stood between the two girls taking position on the training field. The ground was made of hard stone and covered in a thin layer of sand, not offering a comfortable landing spot anywhere. Omi took the academy standard pose. One foot behind the other and her right fist by her right hip while her left hand readied in front of her. Offensive just as Lee would prefer. Shikamaru was curious to see if she had adopted moves from Lee and incorporated them into her moves. That would make for a nasty surprise should anyone assume she was a fresh Genin.

By contrast, Monica Uandi adopted a more defensive stance. Her weight was on her back heel and her hand rested on the hilt of the weapon she hid in her cloak. Lesser trained eyes would not see the subtleties given the cloak. Her left hand was low by her hip and was ready to give different options should the need arise. Going defensive would make sense given the history, should she be the one they were looking for.

"H-hey, Monica? About what you said… earlier, I mean. You don't have to coddle me. I-I should get better myself. So, please allow yourself by giving it your all." Omi gave a smile and Monica simply nodded. Both their hearts were racing. Omi was worried she was outclassed, while Monica feared she would be found out.

"First match, between Omi Nohara and Monica Uandi. No lethal force. Begin." Shikamaru swiped his hand down and took a step back.

Omi opened with a quick throw of kunai. One, then another was sent towards Monica. The first shot was wide, but the second shot was parried by her weapon, which she equipped in one quick movement. Monica summoned a kunai in her left hand and tossed it much like she had the night before against Druarni. The deadly tip sailed straight for Omi's neck, forcing her to clap her hands on the blade before she was hit. Her eyes were widened momentarily out of the accuracy of her projectile. Monica was about to activate her trap, when she clearly hesitated. In turn, this allowed Omi to spin the kunai and throw it back to her creator. Running after the blade as she expected for Monica to either catch it or dodge it. Either way, knocking her out of position.

Neither happened as the kunai was unsummoned and Monica leaped through the smoke to slash at her opponent. Omi ducked under the sword before delivering a punch to Monica ribs. The fist connected, but left Omi open to the pommel of Monica's wakizashi and the poor girl was thrown across the field. Blood running down her eyebrow. She looked up at her approaching opponent.

Omi's hands snuck behind he back to retrieve a handful of shuriken. Once the orange-haired kunoichi had walked to almost striking distance, Omi pumped chakra into her legs and leaped up above her sparring partner, raining shuriken down from above. Swordsmanship would not have been enough to stop the attack. Far too many projectiles were in the air, even though they were limited to the damage they could inflict.

Monica did not wear armour, nor was she remotely fast enough, so she thought about the second jutsu she had learned. Moulding the chakra like it was second nature, she formed several small balls of blue fire. Each shuriken pinged off the jutsu giving a metallic tang. Crossing her arms, she weathered the remaining shuriken, though her defense was far from perfect.

Monica hissed in pain as her arm, thigh, and shoulder were cut by the sharp blades. Omi was already on her. Taijutsu was her preferred tactic, but she needed to disarm the woman before she gets a successful swipe. The fireballs were a little unnerving to the Konoha ninja. Had they been paying attention to the crowd, several members just added the final piece of their collective puzzle.

The leaf ninja elbowed Monica hard and forced her back, a light jab to her right bicep before faking an opening for Monica to stab forward. Omi turned in and twisted the handle of the wakizashi out of Monica's hand, kicking the merciless weapon out of reach. Monica's leg wrapped out Omis and pulled her to her knees. Omi retunred the favour by dropping fast and rolling Monica over. A kunai from nowhere appeared in Monica's hand and slashed painfully across Omi's chest, above the breast but just glancing harmlessly off the bone. Omi leaped back and bit back the pain. Her beige coat now stained.

Monica scrambled back with some distance now, cursing away the pain from her twisted hand. However, being unarmed was never an issue for the foreigners. Monica's hands started to glow with blue fire. With a look of crazed excitement in her face she readied her jutsu.

"-Fire style: Fireballs.-" She did not care that she had used her native tongue as her first fireball shot from her left. The excitement from the battle seemed to engulf her despite the audience. Taking a step back to fire the second from her right. She was readying the third by the time her first projectiles struck around Omi.

Omi saw the projectiles and took to evasion. Where she was a moment ago, a fireball struck with explosive force. Blue flames licking the ground ahead and the heat pricked up on her neck. She needed to close the distance once again.

Seeing Omi roll out of the way of her final fireball, Monica noticed she had picked up a kunai laying near her and charged again. The foreigner stood her ground and sailed through several hand signs. Few breaking the traditional hand signs and appeared unique to the audience. Holding her left hand, she waited until it caught fire in her own blue flames. Omi instantly regretted going on the offensive as she blocked with her right hand and a burning fist struck her in the chest, leaving a painful burn which was sure to blister.

Now, it was becoming obvious who was better. Monica started to concentrate on the combat and forgot her previous reservations. Her nerves and fears did not seem important anymore as she eagerly engaged hand to hand with the Genin. Ducking and spinning, Monica weaved through more hand signs and a blue banner of fire revealed itself in front of her. Smoke popped, and her sword summoned itself only to be snatched out of mid-air by her right arm. Time seemed to slow for both girls. Omi was spinning with her kunai at the ready while Monica also spun with her sword. Monica was lower to the ground and Omi was too high. Her attack missed while the Wakizashi slit across her abdomen.

The match was over with Monica gazing to the distance. Her purple eyes lost all shine as her bloodlust had taken over. Omi also stood behind Monica facing away. Silence for a second until Omi coughed up blood and fell to her knees. Monica's eyes widened as her body visibly started to shake. Reality hit her like a wall. She dropped her sword and turned to catch Omi before the blade even clattered on the floor.

"-Shit. Shit shit shit shit.-" She applied pressure to the wound and tried her best to comfort the Genin. "-Stay with me. You can't die. Please.-" Monica started to panic, trying to weave hand signs, swearing each time she got it wrong. Seeing the blood of someone innocent staining her hands breaking at her sanity. "-You had not told me about who was precious to you. Your home? Come on you had a life to live." Sakura had jumped in while Shikamaru and Lee tried to pull the crying girl off Omi. "-Okay. I was jealous. I'm sorry I did not mean to strike so hard.-"

"I… m… fault… I told y… not coddle me." Omi's voice was hoarse. Monica was pulled away while Sakura was able to give first-aid. Monica stood up shaking as she realised everyone had now made a ring surrounding her. She rubbed her hands nervously as her tears kept streaming down her cheeks.

"Purple eyes, female, uses blue fire, red hair, speaks another language, used a unique jutsu we recognise from a scene of a crime." Shikamaru listed off each feature down his list. "This is beyond coincidence. Monica is the girl we've been looking for."

"You are under arrest for the killing of four Iwa ANBU, one Kiri Jonin, assault on one Kumo Jonin, excessive force on one Konoha Genin, and the killing of several citizen of Stone." Kurotsuchi listed out the charges. Now they had to apprehend her partner and the whole mess could be resolved. She gave a sigh. "Anything to say for yourself, Kunoichi of unknown origins?"

"-Fukushi please… forgive me.-" She muttered before subtly clenching her fist. "I'd rather die." She spoke without emotion in her voice, steeling herself as best as she could. Perhaps if there was another way… If things had panned out differently then, maybe… Just maybe she would have found paradise.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath in. Since she was young she was taught to never greet death with fear in your heart. Slowly, she opened her eyes and crouched as she did so. Kunai slowly formed in her hands as she waited for someone to attack first.

' _Hm.. to have travelled so far only to end it here. I miss Fukushi… I miss my home_ '. She thought sadly as her body instinctively turned to block the oncoming strike from one of the sand shinobi. She might have managed to slash him or her across the chest, but her mind did not register it. ' _Maybe this is my hell_.' She flicked one kunai that missed Naruto's head. He only had to side step. A rope from a Johyo wrapped around her legs and tripped her up with a tug. She tried to burn through the rope, but had to dodge a naginata by rolling to the side. The woman tried to spring up to her feet, but a knockout strike to the back of her head defeated her. ' _I mean… why did I deserve to survive?_ ' Her unconscious body hit the floor face first.

"Sorry girly, we need you alive." Kurotsuchi answered her earlier question.

* * *

Later that evening, Naruto found himself leaning over the edge of a bridge that crossed near a waterfall. He was idling himself by staring at his bandaged right arm, wearing a jacket which had considerably less orange painted over it. Although, it still had his favourite colour in two stripes which lined around his mid-section. He gave his headband a quick rub as he thought through events that have passed him by. The evening mountain mist had started to cover the valleys off to the distance and the shadows that the mountains casted had made the scene look beautiful, yet cold.

"Naruto?" Hinata asked. She had spent the last hour trying to find Naruto, not that there was anything to do. She just wanted to see him.

"Hn? Oh, hey, Hinata. Need something?"

"Oh, no no. I just wondered where you had gone."

"Ah, well. I just wanted to think, that's all."

"You always enjoyed having time to yourself." Hinata walked until she was next to him and looking over the village below.

"Never thought I'd get to enjoy other villages like this."

"Ano, it's nice not having eyes watching you from afar."

"Yeah… it's good, though."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, for the first time we've all managed to get along. It's good."

"All thanks to you."

"You as well. You have a way with words. A certain finesse that I don't have."

Hinata didn't reply, but turned away to hide her blush. Speaking his mind, he felt so much sincerer in his complement.

"Hey, Hinata?"

"Hmm?"

"If… if we were actually on the bad side… would we still be partnered up like this?" He blushed before coughing and continued. "I mean we've always assumed we were on the good side. But if we weren't, what would actually change?"

"Well…" Hinata begun. "It's nice to see you've picked up philosophy." She giggled at his response of defeat. Naruto was painfully aware how much reading he needed to catch up to become Hokage. "What brought this on?"

"You see right through me." Naruto stood up straight and turned to give Hinata his full attention. "Something that Monica said just as they entered the field. She was talking to Omi about her precious people."

"I've heard you mention this before… Haku wasn't it?" One of Naruto's favourite things about Hinata that he quickly found out about during the war, was she would always listen and remember each and every story he had. It showed through references like these.

"Yeah those who we consider our enemy do what they do for the same reasons we do what we do."

"Unless you hurt people for greed." Hinata added.

"Y-yeah exactly, but most people are just misunderstood, ya know? Our business just so happens to collide against each other."

"You're talking about Monica and her partner. Aren't you?"

Naruto sighed heavily. "Yeah. Usually I'd need to fight them to really understand their motives, but right now it's so clear cut that I just can't help but wonder if I can help them."

"You're really kind, Naruto. Knowing you, you'd be able to help them."

"What about you? You think it's right that we should help them?"

Hinata was silent for a few moments. Naruto rarely needed confirmation off anyone but given that he and Hinata worked together for so long, asking for her opinion would make sense. Often, he would ask for Kurama's opinion as well just, so he could make his mind up in confidence.

"I've seen you turn worse people than them." Kurama's voice rumbled from Naruto. It was low so only the pair could hear him.

"I agree with Lord Kurama." A small smile crossed her lips, knowing he liked the name.

"Your acknowledgements have been noted." The beast smoothly replied.

"Thank you, but yeah, from everything we know, they are definitely the wronged party here." Hinata's eyes lit up with an idea. "Would you kill for me, Naruto?"

Naruto's eyes widened in shock to such a question. Her crystal eyes turned to face him and for a moment they gazed into each other. The question was not out of place given the talk that Naruto just had, but the implications were so widespread and unpredictable. While Hinata was a precious person the answer was normally easy. Yes. But if the cost was the lives of the elemental nations or even another person Naruto considered precious, he wasn't sure. Was there a point where one person was worth everything you had worked for? The blond was silent as he worked through the conundrum, but it was when Hinata slowly looked down and averted her gaze. Her breath hitched slightly, and, in that moment, Naruto fell back on his gut instinct.

"Yes. I would." Hinata's gaze snapped back into his sapphire eyes. Searching for any sighs of him lying or not being entirely truthful. She gave him a warm smile.

"Really, Naruto?" Kurama asked. He understood the answer since Naruto fought Pein. The fact Hinata's perceived death was the closest Naruto had gotten to giving in. "This is not something to take lightly. But you already knew that didn't you."

"I get it. Yeah, I think I have my answer now. Of course Monica would head straight into the home of their enemy for her precious person. W-what about you, Hinata? Would you follow me into hell?"

Hinata blushed and glanced away before looking back with a smile on her face. "Without hesitation."

"This is the part you kiss her." Kurama advised which made both jump apart.

"Kurama! Why would you s-say that? That's something only couples do!"

"Fine. I'll turn around." And the nine-tails presence receded.

"I… err. sorry. I-He di-"

"It's okay." Hinata leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. Her heart raced, and her body felt hot, but she stood away before anything else could happen. "I'll wait." Naruto just stood there stock still. "We should go and find the others and see if we can help those two." Hinata walked away, trying to resist the urge to run off out of nerves.

"H-Hey, what did you mean by that?" Naruto called out after her before catching up.

"You're still an idiot, boy." Kurama muttered from the depths of Naruto's psyche.


	11. Chapter XI The fruits of a poor plan!

**Another chapter which should begin to tie my story together nicely.**

 **excuse the late posts, my laptop decided to die dramatically and so i had nothing to work on for a couple of weeks, i gave in and found my old laptop, blew the dust off and made sure it could still work. So now with the steam engines on this thing at full whack I can still write (if little else).**

 **Sultryvoice: Glad you like the story, it has always been my intention to write something a little different. After all, I do get sick of reading the same arcs after a while and love to find the stories which break the mold.**

 **RavenShadow: Yeah as it turns out getting the plot in order is much easier after you spend months working on it. I had dived in before but now I know exactly how I want to progress. Also don't worry about NarHina moments, while i am concentrating on the OC story for now I will get back to their side soon enough. During the original writing I was worried that leaving the beaten track would get backfired by the community here but this time around I am focusing on how I want the story to go which swings back an forth between Naruto and Fukushi. This is for plot reasons much later down the line.**

 **Redredredredred: Glad you like the story.**

 **Please follow, comment, review if you like the story, Critique is always welcome as well. Thanks for reading.**

 **Thank you Missrach, beautiful as ever.**

 **Later that day.**

While the events involving Monica inside Iwa came to pass the other member of the duo was just waking up. His remaining eye opened to the scene at the hot springs. The many pools with hot almost-illuminating pools of volcanic water. The smell of wet stone and moss filled the air as Fukushi took a deep breath in. His body may still be exhausted but his mind as sharp as it could be. While sleeping was a dangerous feat to do alone despite the enclave in the mountains. Fukushi was simply not a shinobi and could not trust himself to be safe during a light sleep. Therefore, he had opted to meditate. Often those with chakra would meditate in order to concentrate on their spiritual chakra, that or feel at peace with their situation. With a little technique he could meditate in such a way he would be able to generate chakra at a faster rate. Note that this was a far cry from sage mode and natural chakra, but the principles were there.

Stretching he popped his stiff muscles and bones. Wincing at the fresh spikes of pain from the many injuries. Idly the young man rubbed his chest where the twisted scar across his heart reminded him of the past. Sighing heavily and closing his eyes once more to darkness. His plan, should it go accordingly well, would be to find and meet up Monica to finish the search for the last pages. If she had not found them yet, he was sure his friend would have at least narrowed down the search.

Being a valuable pawn in the Ro alliance had its rewards. He knew the landscape better than some may expect, and he certainly knew ways for getting into Iwa unnoticed. Of which this was not his first venture into the city. Although that time was far less malicious by comparison. He was tasked to simply provide a letter to the Ro correspondence, but the secret criteria of said mission was to see if Fukushi was able to get into the city without drawing suspicion. Not being from a shinobi background, Fukushi never had that air of power around him. He spent the next few hours following a stream away from the spring which led him up narrow walkways and steep slopes until he found the location he was searching for.

Moving along a tight rift in the mountain where a stream had cut the rock into a long narrow snaky chasm of grey rock. He reached a point where the stream exited from the cave. Instead of entering the cave Fukushi began to climb. He worked quickly under the failing light. His katana made some moves difficult, but he managed to reach the top. The ledge he stood on was a higher rift where the stream used to flow once a very long time ago. A few mosses and rare mountain flowers clung from the wind up here and Fukushi continued to venture deeper into the mountain pass.

Over time he caught the glimpses of Iwagakure. He could already spy several guarding shinobi with their tell-tail uniform off in the distance. It was at this point the young shinobi had begun to feel nervous and constantly had to remind himself there was no other way. He knew what he was about to do was equally stupid and difficult. The Solaris family member was outnumbered, out skilled, and at a disadvantage from his injuries. However, Fukushi knew to keep to his strengths. Storms were a common occurrence in the Land of Earth and so he was able to perform his teleportation jutsu without drawing attention. Yet waiting for one was unreliable but he knew ways around that issue.

Fukushi crept along the mountain ridge and to a small dip where he silently dug some summoned kunai into the ground. As he did so, the fuuinjutsu appeared to grow and 'blossom' from each blade. Concentrating hard on the shape and design while his chakra spread and created the seal. From each kunai, more segments of the pentagram shone until the whole seal was visible. His hands silently flew through several hand signals and the glowing lines faded to black but still somehow defied touching the ground below. A whistling sound. A noise above the wind alerted the one-eyed ninja to evade. Several kunai made of cold steel ricochet off the ground where he once stood. Sparks flying upon impact.

"-Shit _.-"_ He cursed as he gazed up at who had spotted him. 'So much for sneaking in an unguarded route.' He thought to himself. The wind picked up as Fukushi felt a stray length of bandage against his head flap furiously in the breath before dying down. On the higher ground, his eye met the eyes of an older man dressed in black shinobi gear. White flack jacket and in his hands was a katana blade. White ribbon also caught in the gust. His headband reflected in the dying light of the day and revealed his 'cloud' origins.

"Well, well, _well._ I came up here to reflect on my plight when what should I see? A rat. Scurrying around to find it's little whore. Well rat, lightning demon or not I'll show you what wielding the true power of thunder is like. Then, I'll drag you down to the Tsuchikage, so you and your little bitch can beg for forgiveness. You'll find nothing from me."

"I don't have time for this. Step aside or I'll make you step aside."

"Big words from someone so young and thoughtless." Arra channelled chakra into his legs and sprung himself off the rocks to meet Fukushi in close combat before he would lose the advantage of planning ahead. One leap, second leap but before he could close the distance his younger opponent threw down four kunai in a quick flick of his tattooed left hand.

The yellow wall of energy crackled under the force of the blade tip. Pale streaks of stress radiated through the shield. Fukushi had to think fast. It was not ideal to hold the shield up for long and he still could not use his teleportation unless his life depended on it. Such a visible jutsu would give away his position for sure.

Arra leaped off, keeping pressure on by throwing shuriken. As soon as he had given himself some distance the Kumo shinobi weaved hands signs.

"Lightning style: lightning bullet." He brought his hand to his mouth and 'spat' out a ball of energy. It would have been well aimed had a series of returning kunai forced him to fire prematurely and roll out of the way. Stones scattering as he skidded across the barren mountain scape. An explosion followed by crackling energy hit a nearby rock but dealt no damage to his intended target. Focusing back to the one-eyed shinobi he saw he was finished another set of seals and four more kunai materialised above his head. Without a word they shot forward with frightening speed.

First one Arra managed to deflect with his sword. He quickly found these kunai were not all they appeared to be. Numbing jolt of electricity flashed through his sword arm causing it to spasm almost uncontrollably. Almost, being the key word, having an affinity to lightning provided the shinobi with enough resistance to block two more kunai which gave the same shocking treatment. The forth managed to sail past his guard, although the blade grazed his cheek and blood was drawn from the attack. All of which happened in under a second.

Arra caught his breath. He was angry now and wanted blood. The Tsuchikage will have to look at bit of charred flesh when he is done. The thought was cut short as Fukushi had brought up his hand to his face in a seal and sent a spike of chakra. No hand signs were performed, yet each kunai sparked and sent a bolt of electricity to the surprised Jonin. Apparently, his opponent had full control over these weapons. He grunted in pain as he took the electricity attack without any hope of blocking it.

"I'll make you pay for what you did to my wife." Arra spat out, some blood being drawn from him lips.

Both ninja leaped at each other but Arra was forced to cancel his attack as Fukushi summones a spear. Given his superior reach the Kumo shinobi bent backwards to avoid the spear tip aiming for his neck. Fukushi kept up the attack by jumping up to deliver a round-house kick to the face. Kicking Arra to one side although there was only so much damage a teenager could deal to a seasoned Jonin. Whom immediately replaced the pressure and continued his assault, adjusting to the longer reach the spear provided.

Eventually Arra managed to break the younger mans guard and landed a solid punch from his left fist into the solar plexus, winding Fukushi followed by a kick straight into the neck. His assault did not stop there as he spun on his leg and kicked Fukushi across the small passageway on the mountainside.

His body ached and protested as the one-eyed ninja picked himself off the floor. The gravel stung under his skin. Raising his head, he looked at the approaching enemy. He took a sharp deep breath to get some more oxygen into his body. Springing up to his feet, plan in his mind, Fukuchi summoned another spear as his previous one dis-spelled during his beat-down. It appeared as if he pulled the weapon from his left wrist. Juggling the shaft into a better position and Fukushi threw the spear. No sooner did it leave his hand; the weapon instantly had gone supersonic with a loud crack and a flash of brilliant yellow light only to shot out like a bullet.

Having a split second to react the Jonin cried in pain as the spear imbedded itself in this shoulder. Or, more accurately, penetrated clean through his shoulder. With a nod that his opponent was sufficiently disabled Fukushi decided now was a good time to leave. That attack would have flashed his location throughout the entire valley by now.

"-Screw stealth.-" He muttered to himself.

"Where do you think you're going kid?" The Kumo Jonin asked with the razor edge of anger in his voice.

"Like I told you, I don't have time." Fukushi bit his lip, first thing was to find Monica. If the ninja from Kumo's taunts meant anything. It was that they were aware of his friend.

"Lightning style: Lightning whip." The Jonin with his uninjured right arm swung his sword and an arc of electricity shot out like a tidal wave towards Fukushi.

"-Wind style: Burst of pressure _-_ " Fukushi calmly spoke in his native tongue. A single gust of air blew out in front and cancelled out the arc of energy down the middle. Leaving the wings of said attack to harmlessly rock past. Arra just frowned at the ease his attack was cancelled. ' _So it's ninjutsu he specialises in. I was able to beat him in close combat but with my arm out he might have more of an edge. I wonder if those explosives left after the third war are still here.'_ Arra plotted his next move carefully.

Operation avalanche was perhaps one of the boldest moves during the third war. It would have dealt a crippling blow had they not been found out. The mission was a total failure and resulted in several Kumo Jonin being slaughtered as they were caught badly out of position during the riskiest section of their mission. Arra's hope being that the explosives were never found and therefore still active.

Fukushi looked up and felt the first drop of rain splash against his cheek. Closing his eye, he listened for the distant sound of thunder. ' _not long now'_ he thought to himself. Slowly his hands came together to form a seal, followed by another and another.

"- _Wind style: High pressure.-_ " Arra felt a strong wind blow directly on top of him. His arms felt heavy as the wind pressed him to the floor. He just needed to perform one seal and pulse his chakra. Taking all his strength he pushed past the Jutsu. The Kumo ninja had to act fast as kunai embedded themselves around Arra in a neat circle. Yellow Fuuinjutsu spread across the ground around the downed shinobi. Once completed he noticed the Fukushi no longer needed to concentrate on the jutsu. The young adult drew his katana and calmly approached the sealed Jonin. They stared each other down and Arra saw something he understood. A certain lifelessness in his remaining eye. Calculating and merciless.

If Fukushi said anything it was not heard by Arra. The wind blowing intensely passed his ears blocked it out. He just had to wait for the right moment. Guessing how this jutsu worked meant it had to be dispelled at the last possible second least the user gets caught inside as well. Narrowing his eyes at the purple eye he searched for that flash of inspiration to indicate the lethal move.

The wind stopped, and the katana plunged. A pulse of chakra rang out and ceased to exist almost just as fast. Fukushi retrieved his blade and the body fell just in time to watch explosion after explosion roared out up in the mountains above. The very earth heaved and shook as the smaller loose stones bounced by. The entire ridge concealed in smoke and for a moment silence befell on the scene. Wind quietly blowing the smoke into the pink sunset. Large chunks of snow and stone seemed to turn to liquid as the entire mountaintop started to slide under gravity.

Fukushi, and certainly much of the Iwa population, collectively had the same thought. 'Fuck.' Fukushi immediately jumped to the side to avoid a boulder but his foot was almost swallowed by the gravel as it shook before the oncoming avalanche. Jumping again to safety only for his sixth sense to alert him of incoming danger. Spinning on his foot and summoning a kunai just in time to block the blade of an ANBU elite. The mask covering the identity entirely.

Subtlety having now long since passed the Solaris survivor teleported away from the ANBU agent. A clash of thunder and a bright lightning bolt indicating the move to a nearby boulder that was sliding down the steep slopes at some speed. Fukushi desperately trying to analyse the situation. It was bad no matter how you looked at it. The masked ninja were strong and fast and seemed right at home on the mountain slopes.

Behind Fukushi there were several ninja skipping from surface to surface and up ahead several large stone walls were being erected to protect the city from devastation. After all, being a mountainous city they would have had some defense against avalanches. Throwing his kunai to the side in hopes of catching someone off guard. Despite his lightning chakra speeding up his throw a stone got in the way to deflect the blade. No matter, four more were shot in the same direction. Four more kunai were summoned and thrown at his feet for a wall of energy to block some stone projectiles. Fukushi's eye darting around to spot the next attack.

A woman with long black hair and tanned skin jumped onto the rock Fukushi was riding on. With impressive speed she closed the gap with a kick only for a bright flash of yellow light to reposition Fukushi. Lightning infused fist struck the woman on her flank and with another explosion of energy she was blown off the rock. Fukushi raised his left hand to release the seal and a bolt of lightning struck the woman in mid-air.

Ducking under the sword of another ninja Fukushi drew his own weapon to dodge and parry the attacker until with another flash of lightning he appeared behind his new opponent. Slashed through the spine before summoning and killing the man with a kunai to the neck. Retrieving the kunai and throwing it to a boulder in free-fall. The young man ran and leaped across with all his might to the next flat surface. Not being as comfortable on the terrain as the Iwa shinobi. The boulder exploded behind him as a bolt of lightning struck it. Sending shards of rock to cover him.

A set of hand signals and a jet of compressed air blasted a ANBU whom was trying to get into close combat. Although time had ran out. Behind Fukushi the stone wall rose up and the avalanche started to collide with the full force of nature. Although with his one eye he noticed something. He was standing in the middle of a large stone hand. One of which was closing fast over him.

Looking up he teleported to the top of the finger. Flickering there momentarily before moving again. A boulder destroying where he was standing just a moment ago. Summoning a kunai as he found himself freefalling by the high stone barrier. With all his might he pinned himself against the wall. Gritting his teeth in pain and effort he forced himself to look up, so he could reach the top of the wall. In another flash he was hanging off the ledge. Tired he pulled himself to the very top and surveyed the carnage. All around him flashes of lightning and thunder rung out. He had not noticed during the heat of battle that the heavens had started to rain heavily too.

Taking deep breaths, he was sure the storm acted as the perfect distraction and he was left to become undetected. His heart was racing loudly, he could feel his blood ran hot and was pretty sure the stinging sensation was a head injury going unnoticed. Running his hand over his missing left eye which gave him a dull ache to remind him of the recent injuries. Taking another deep breath, he jumped down to the safe side of the barrier. He looked around and could see he was on some sort of training field. Looking around to find cover in hopes he could form the next step to his plans.

Now the rain had started the daylight was officially over. Now only the city existed to illuminate the surroundings and on any other day the scene of the city ahead would have been breath taking. The survivor closed his eye. More ninja now joined the fray. Six he recognised from the leaf, four had a tan-coloured uniforms and what looked to have sand etched onto their metal bands, four more had arrived from the Mist, taking personal offense to the loss of one of their own. An additional twenty from Iwagakure also arrived. Each warrior looked battle hardened and ready for whatever Fukushi could throw at them. His chances of beating these ninja were slimming by the minute as they had more time to analyse his abilities and now he no longer had any advantage through surprises.

"Tell me brat, why do you attack us? One against so many, you're almost insane." The tsuchikage continued. He took a seat on a rock. The elder quickly glanced at the stone wall that stopped the avalanche. With a loud, commanding voice, especially for someone his age. Demanded answers and everyone was silent to hear what Fukushi could say in front of them all.

Fukushi remained silent and patiently waiting for someone to make a move. He closed his remaining eye once more and listened to all his opponents. He was hearing their heart beats, the rain splashing against their armour, their breath heavy from the cold. There was a good few minutes of stalling before someone grew impatient and shouted at the lone figure.

"Answer the Tsuchikage, show some respect you damned beast!"

"I don't have time to fight. I need something, and someone, then I'll be gone for good." Fukushi broke the silence.

"And they are worth dying for? Killing for?" Onoki snapped back as soon as Fukushi had finished. Obviously unsatisfied with the response and according to his perspective the invader had tried to bury his city. Not aware about Arra had been taking advantage of history.

"What choice do I have?" Fukushi spoke much quieter as if he only wanted to reassure himself. "She's all i have left." He said even quieter than before.

He had to act quickly in one sweeping motion, any error and he will be destroyed. He took another deep breath, he had been banking his entire plan on Monica leaving small signs to take him straight to where the page was kept. That or summon him should she find it herself. Worst case scenario in his plan was Monica had been taken as a prisoner as soon as she had arrived. He hoped for the best but feared the worst, if only he knew how bad his plan had gone at this point. Fukushi took a final deep breath, steeling himself to his strategy. He vanished in a bright yellow explosion of electricity The smoke quickly dissipated and revealed that he was no longer present.

The small army of shinobi turned to see where Fukushi had vanished to but he was evidently nowhere near them and the city beyond was too vast for any of them to spot him. Anyone but the recent addition and sixth member of the leaf Jonin. He had far superior eyesight and spotted Fukushi running towards the Tsuchikage's tower.

"Naruto lend me your chakra, he's across the village heading to the Tsuchikage's tower." Naruto complied and held the man's shoulder, He vanished as soon as Naruto's chakra was transferred.

"He's heading towards the Tsuchikage's tower!" Naruto roared up. There was a battle cry from some of the Iwa shinobi as the ninja assault force leaped forward to cover the distance as fast as they could. Giving Fukushi around ten minutes before he was surrounded again.

Fuckishi was now running as fast as he could across the rooftops. He couldn't get any closer without using a more chakra form of teleportation so he had to leg it for the final few hundred yards. From experience he knew the important documents were typically held here and if any markers were placed he would be able to pin point the much needed pages or even Monica herself. He leaped through a window and barrel rolled across the room. Not caring for the occupancy who were blown back from Fukushi's entrance. He flicked a kunai at the locked door as soon as he got up. The kunai caused an electrical explosion that blasted his get-away open. He burst out of the next window and across the next building which had been on a lower plateau. He was making good uninterrupted progress until he heard a voice behind him. Said voice caused Fukushi to freeze.

"You can really teleport quite some distance, judging why you ended up here and not closer to the tower suggests it uses a lot of chakra. Am i wrong?"

"I suppose you can teleport too. Judging how you were able to catch up." Fukushi turned so see his new opponent, which was a mistake.

"Sharingan." The leaf shinobi spoke coldly as if he had just killed Fukushi. Fukushi gasped and clutched his side in intense pain. He collapsed to the floor and breathed heavily from while he tried to get steady. Unfortunately for the aggressor the genjutsu somehow backfired and caused him to clutch his right eye in agony as well. As Fukushi got up, the cloaked shinobi also took his hand away to reveal the attack caused his closed eye to bleed.

"So you aren't immune after all." The man with the Sharingan spoke. "You use your chakra seals as a method of bypassing the effects of genjutsu, but once they are empty you are vulnerable. Please, correct me if i am wrong?"

"Who are you? How did you know I had those seals?"

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha. Now that I've told you my name, what is yours."

Fukushi was still holding his right side as it ached, Sasuke's Sharingan may have been deflected but it had consumed a whole seal's worth of chakra, if Fukushi was not careful he would become vulnerable to genjutsu, and with no other form of defence it would mean certain defeat. His only hope was that this Sasuke could not recover as fast as he could.

"My name is Fukushi Torro of the Solaris family."

"Never heard of it." Sasuke dismissed. "Where did you come from?"

"Nowhere. It does not matter anymore."

"Who sent you?" Sasuke was getting impatient from the vague answers, but he needed to buy time for his Sharingan to stop aching.

"No-one." Fukushi was also wasting time to recover appeared to be the first to recover and so he turned to make a quick escape.

"Who taught you those jutsu?"

"He died." Fukushi leaped backward to turn and run but Sasuke was able to cut him off and swipe at him with his own sword. Sasuke then spun and kicked Fukushi back to where he started on the rooftop. He used his lightning teleport to stop his falling and faced Sasuke while blazing through hand signs. Sasuke had the weird sensation of understanding perfectly what Fukushi was doing despite the new hand signs thrown into the mix. Four kunai were summoned above Fukushi which then proceeded to shoot out at Sasuke with loud cracks. With an uninterested face the Uchiha dodged the four blades. Fukushi responded by repeating the jutsu only this time with eight kunai. Sasuke jumped up and over the eight shots to successfully dodge all of the kunai. He drew his sword and thrusted down onto Fukushi who blocked the blow with his own katana. The two glared into each other as Fukushi threw Sasuke off and proceeded to sweep at Sasuke. Dodge after dodge was the only result Fukushi could obtain, being simply not fast enough to land any sort of hits on the Uchiha.

Sasuke landed a hit on Fukushi's stomach and knocked him away. Sasuke opened his right eye to reveal his Sharingan once more.

"Amaterasu." Sasuke shouted and on command Fukushi burst into black fire. Instead of panicking Fukushi instead teleported in a bright yellow flash to Sasuke's side but he managed to dodge the katana's deadly blade much to Fukushi's annoyance.

"So you have a true teleport, if you were simply moving fast then those flames would still be burning you."

"If you just stay still I'll tell you all about it in hell."

"I'm not planning on going there just yet." Sasuke spoke calmly despite being in the middle of a skirmish. "You aren't strong enough to take me there either."

"I don't care I don't have a choice."

"Why?" Sasuke spoke as he dodged volley after volley of thrown kunai. It wasn't until Fukushi closed the distance back into melee with Sasuke did he answer.

"I'm returning what was stolen from me!" His anger was speeding up his attacks to the point where Sasuke long since stopped dodging and resorted to parrying the frenzied attacks. Duck, duck, dive, parry, kick, parry. Fukushi had become narrow sighted in trying to land a hit on Sasuke that he didn't notice and orange wearing shinobi with bright yellow hair and a blue ball of chakra in one hand.

"Resengan!" Naruto shouted. Giving Fukushi just enough warning to raise a small lightning shield on his left arm. The two jutsu collided. Fukushi's shield burned bright yellow under the intensity but protected the one-eyed shinobi from the majority of the damage. The sheer intensity breaking the bone as opposed to outright destroying the whole arm. However, Fukushi being worse off in that encounter, ended up blasted across the street and through the wall of the building opposite. He was enveloped in the dust kicked up from colliding with the wall.

"Did that defeat him?" Naruto asked, breathing heavily from running fast enough to catch up.

"No." The dust cleared and they both saw Fukushi struggling to get up. The damage was done to his body and he was ready to give in to his fate. He glared out at the two standing shinobi on the rooftop across the street. The bandages on the left side of his face was soaked in his own blood again as he hit the wall hard. He wanted to run and live for another day, clearly, he was overpowered right now. steadying his footing he told himself he had to do this, in the middle of the hornets' nest. With no friends and nowhere to run to. Hell, if he did run what could he do after that. The pages were the only thing that kept him focused and without that drive he was sure he'd unravel there and then. Fukushi gripped his katana tightly in his right hand and a kunai in his left. With a battle cry he charged forward out of the building and he leaped to cross the gap.

He would have made it across and back into the battle if Sasuke with a stoic face whispered the word 'Sharingan'. Fukushi froze in mid-air as the paralysing genjutsu worked through his body. He had forgotten that his chakra storage had become too low to be effective at repelling the Sharingan. Hitting the side of the building brought him out of the genjutsu but left him to fell hard to the ground three stories below with his katana clattering to the ground beside him. Fukushi stared up at the rain as it seemed to come down harder than ever to him.

"-Sorry.. Father… I couldn't… I.. Monica.-" He spoke in a whisper to himself. A Tear escaping from his right eye washed off by the rain. He hardly even registered the shinobi jumping on him to make sure he couldn't move. He had several kunai and an assortment of other weapons all pointing to him almost daring him to make a move. Fukushi closed his eye and allowed reality to slip away.


	12. Chapter XII Sasuke's redemption!

**Back to the grind, this is the scheduled chapter for this week, Enjoy.**

 **Also where it is** "- _Italics_ -" **The majority of characters cannot understand but i've written it so the viewer can understand.**

 **Please keep on reviewing, commenting, following. Again sorry for the spelling mistakes. Also again, thanks to Missrach for being such a great help. Love ya.**

"We have a male who appears to be seventeen years of age. Lineage, unknown, and place of birth, unknown."

"You don't know where he is from? Or which village he identifies with?"

"Honestly no, no indications on his person or body."

"What about his injuries? When will he be awake for interrogation?"

"His body has sustained damage over the course of his lifetime. Although, the majority are recent injuries. There are some historic wounds which have fully healed." The pink haired Sakura reported as her green jutsu worked over the body of the foreign shinobi. He was still incapacitated and was laying on an operating table, shirtless but with seals covering his own chakra seals. His right eye was also covered, in fear his teleporting was a kekkei genkai. "His major scars to note is one on his face. The first injury mentioned appeared to be a downward cut impacting the bone under his brow, where the blade proceeded to penetrate the eye, stopping at the base of the eye socket. The injury appeared to have been crudely seared as a possible means to prevent blood loss."

"So, no chance he was covering a unique kekkei genkai as the reports suggested?"

"No." Sakura continued to Kurotsuchi, who was obtaining the official report on the 'lightning demon'. "He is blind in his left eye by all definitions of the word."

"Continue with the rest of the injuries."

"As far as the rest goes, he has an injury on his right shoulder, it has also been cauterised." Sakura shuddered as she remembered how he howled in pain. "It was done by someone who had less training and so the injury became infected, but is responding very well to treatment. He also has a scar from an attack that ought to have killed him. Scarring from in front of his heart on his chest and back, both suggest he was impaled, but was _somehow_ able to recover from the wound. _Somehow_." She stressed the word. They were aware of his potential to recover quickly, but that particular injury suggested instant death. Although in this world, nothing was off the table just yet.

Sakura waited for some sort of interruption, but after a moment, she continued. "The body also has two injuries of intense chakra burns. Honestly, I've only seen burns like this on Naruto, before he was able to master the Biju chakra. The first site is around the chakra storage seals. I suspect that was the result from defending his body from genjutsu. According to Sasuke Uchiha, they were used as a very blunt method and burned far too much chakra, but if it was his only defense, it would have been preferable over nothing." Sakura waited for Kurotsuchi to finish writing down some notes.

"The other burn is on his left hand. Confirmation from Hinata Hyuuga, shows this injury is caused from sustained chakra damage from leaking chakra at coils in his fingers. I suspect that the tattoo up his arm is actually a form of fuuinjutsu and plays a role in forcibly opening his chakra in such a manor. For what reason, I do not know. Sasuke also confirmed it played no role in his combat strategy, which is also unlike what previous reports suggest. Which was the utilisation of fuuinjutsu for keeping the person in question armed with shadow weaponry."

"Any other injuries or observations about this person you could add to the report?"

"His body is badly malnourished. His eyes and his chakra sample point to meditation over sleep. His chakra has been sub-standard and likely had a significant impact on his fighting ability. He may have been an effective shinobi with unique and powerful justu, but he had been pushing himself far beyond his physical capacity. I think if he kept this up, he'd only be able to reserve his strength for another week, before collapsing from exhaustion. Coupled with his amounting injuries draining chakra, he really was going with everything he had and will likely take months of recovery before he would be back to 'normal' conditions."

"Thank you, Sakura, you have been a great help. We can take him from here."

"It's been my pleasure. I guess we've all been curious to who he is." Sakura got up to leave Kurotsushi to her report, as she was scribbling down her own notes as well.

"Have we had any updates from Monica?"

Sakura thought for a minute before shaking her head.

"We have not been able to discover much, but she is awake if you wish to speak with her. Although, her mental state is not exactly… screwed on tight. Perhaps Sasuke has managed to get more information on her."

"Good. How is Druarni? Has she woken from her injuries yet?"

"No change in her condition." Sakura answered simply. Kurotsuchi jotted a note on her note pad and sighed heavily.

"I'm sorry this has cost the life of a Konoha Genin. Omi, wasn't it? Omi Nohara?

"Yeah." Sakura left with a heavy heart. Despite her best efforts, Omi was not able to withstand such trauma and had passed away before they could get her to the Iwa hospital. Her teammates took her death badly. Lee only appeared to take it well, but Sakura knew that it was a mask to be worn in front of his Genin team. Shikamaru also blamed himself for his miscalculation. He should've known the risk that came with traumatic experience. A simple spar would certainly not have pushed a sane person to use such lethal moves on instinct.

"I believe that is all I can tell you as of now. I'll let you know if there is anything new cropping up." Sakura bowed and turned to leave.

As she left the room, she passed Sasuke who had arrived just before Fukushi attacked. Sakura hardly had the time to greet him before the order was given to reinforce the fight. He gave her a quick smile, but before Sakura could say anything, he had entered the room to where she just had left. She sighed, and walked to see the rest of her team.

"Sasuke." Kurotsuchi spoke once he entered the room. "Are you able to use the Sharingan on this… Fukushi?"

"Are the seals in place and checked? His technique may be blunt, but effective enough to harm me for a few minutes." Sasuke spoke plainly, but Kurotsuchi got the message and double checked that the seals were secured on Fukushi's body.

"He isn't awake, though. I could call…"

"I'll wait. I could do with a rest anyway." Sasuke snapped a little, still somewhat cold from his actions before Naruto beat sense into him two years ago. His left arm was still missing from the conflict as Sasuke felt it would be wrong to accept a new arm as Naruto did. He still felt that he had to seek redemption, and only then would he restore his arm. For the most part, he kept it unseen under a dark cloak, but rest assured, he was still just as deadly with the one arm.

Kurotsuchi nodded. "Once you have finished, I'd like a full mental report. Along with the girls' report."

"You got it." Sasuke took a seat across the room while Kurotsuchi left and locked the door behind her. Without wasting any of his time, Sasuke slipped into a deep sleep. Having received the message, the last Uchiha had wasted no time in reaching Iwagakure. That had meant travelling some distance without rest.

After some time had passed, Fukushi woke up slowly to utter darkness from his blindfold. He knew better than to panic, even when the situation seemed dire. Fukushi listened carefully to his surroundings, and he could hear the quiet breathing of someone asleep. A minute passed, and almost like the other person in the room sensed he was awake, he too also woke up, and Fukushi could hear the other person getting up and approaching him.

"You're awake. Great. We can talk now."

"That sucks. I have nothing to say." Fukushi snapped after realising it was Sasuke from before, his cool voice unmistakable. Sasuke ignored his comment.

"Now that you aren't in a rush, we can continue our conversation from before. Why did you attack Iwagakure?"

"I doubt politely asking at the gates would have gotten me anywhere."

"Funny. So, what was stolen from you? Was it anything to do with these pages?"

"Why should I tell you!?"

"Try again." Sasuke rested his foot on the table and made his presence known. Leaning in slightly, he spoke with a certain promise of pain in his voice.

"What do you think? Should have worked out that those pages were what started this mess." Fukushi spoke calmly. He had nothing to lose, but he still refrained from answering Sasuke fully.

"Yes, you are right. From what we know, you were betrayed and had this book stolen off you. No one would be able to translate it, so you saw no harm in letting your guard down. Someone then set the price high, and some greedy ninja tried to ransom your friend."

Fukushi sighed. "-I was so naive to assume they were on my side.-"

"Another language?"

"-Come's in handy.-" Fukushi visibly relaxed. Any form of torture would not be beneficial to his captors. Speaking his native language first meant that under stress, he would resort to speaking it and thus be useless.

"I see." Sasuke didn't understand the insults, but the intent was evident in his voice. "Asking questions is going to take too long, so I'll tell you what, I'll use my Sharingan."

"-Bastard.-" Fukushi muttered as Sasuke threw off the blindfold, and with his dark red eye, he peered into Fukushi's purple eye.

"Sharingan." And the room faded to black.

Fukushi's mindscape.

Sasuke was not sure what he was expecting once he entered Fukushi's mind. Most people had nothing but floating memories, but Sasuke was surprised over what he saw; a battlefield bathed in a blood-red light. Bodies were contorted into a range of grotesque shapes, all with faces of anger or pain. Sasuke spent a few moments gazing at the horizon. It was uniform, with very few landmarks or anything of notable interest. However, as Sasuke scanned the mindscape, he quickly found large cracks and chasms throughout the landscape. To anyone untrained in mind-walking, they would have thought them as part of the landscape, but once the 'physics' of the mindscape were broken, Sasuke saw the strains of a cracked mind. He continued his search, and over time as he looked around, he stumbled on a certain view. Wide stretching coastal landscape lay before him, and on the bay was a city on fire and in ruins. To his right was a stone tome with a black sun carefully painted, and crudely ruined with dark red paint.

To his left, Sasuke spied a figure approaching. She was a blue haired woman staring longingly out into the black void; as a person would wait anxiously at a port for a ship to arrive. 'Two personalities?' Sasuke thought to himself. It was his immediate guess. Deciding there was nothing else of interest here, he chose to approach 'Fukushi'. He approached the woman slowly, so he didn't startle her. She finally noticed someone approaching, and Sasuke immediately saw something was wrong with her. As she moved, her features flickered. Sometimes changing size or colour, vanishing and becoming corrupted.

"Are you Fukushi's other personality?"

The woman shook her head and spoke. Her voice once beautiful as Sasuke thought, but now it had been corrupted and sounded harsh with static overlaid on top of her voice. It was almost impossible to understand the woman as she spoke, but Sasuke's Sharingan was able to catch several words by reading her lips.

"You, you were soul-bound together?" Sasuke managed to understand as much. His first impression was some sick and twisted idea that Fukushi had on some innocent woman. She nodded and brought up a door seemingly from nowhere. A memory. The Uchiha also noting down she had some control over the subconscious, which supported the idea she was a separate and unique entity.

Sasuke hesitated, the memory before him had been damaged as with the rest of the world. He entered after a moment of reassurance from the mysterious spirit. The end result was only a few images that had survived.

The first was an image of two happy kids playing, chasing each other. One had blue hair, while the other had Fukushi's brown hair, both had purple eyes and appeared to be blissfully happy. Standing over them were two adults talking about something important, but the two men were relaxed with each other, and the image didn't suggest any tension between the men. 'Friends maybe', Sasuke noted.

The second image appeared to be a wedding ceremony. Only the 'bride' and 'groom' were the same two children wearing smart clothes and witnessed by both families and friends. Sasuke assumed the room was well decorated, and the building held importance, but the image had blurred and bleached the surroundings save for the two children in the centre holding hands and looking a mix of happiness and nervousness.

The third image was seemingly a few moments later, when both kids were in the centre of a ritualised jutsu. The pair were holding hands as their arms glowed bright yellow on the boy and a pale blue on the woman. Six people were standing in a circle, with four more further away, and all seemed to be a part of the jutsu. Sasuke was then booted from the memory before he could see any more of the image.

The spirit continued on what Sasuke said, and described it was important for a pair of children to be bound early, so they both could flourish together into adulthood.

"So, what happened?"

The woman pointed around the landscape, Sasuke immediately understood what the bodies were. Spirits, or more accurately, memories rose up from each body, each person being someone from Fukushi's past. He held onto their memories, and judging by how they were manifested in his mindscape, he regretted their deaths.

"A massacre?" He looked down and sighed heavily. His own memories of losing his entire clan to his brother, Itachi. He tightened his fists in anger that someone else had the same fate. He heard the spirit speak again. She was talking about the second chance she gave Fukushi.

"So, you sacrificed yourself to bring him back from death? Reanimation.. I've heard about it, but not used in such a way as this." Sasuke looked at her. "It's a powerful jutsu, but a double-edged sword. Your death caused a synaptic feedback that destroyed most of his mind. That explains what I am seeing here. But tell me, spirit. Why is he after these pages so much? I understand he was betrayed, and they were stolen and sold before he could reacquire them. But what was on them?" He was directed to another memory behind him.

Sasuke was thrown into a more complete memory, one where Fukushi was gasping for air and clutching his chest. Judging by the amount of blood, he had just been saved from a stab through the heart. He was half crying half choking as he crawled towards his dead blue haired friend. They both had matching arm tattoos at the point. He kissed her forehead and broke down in tears. Rocking his head in pain and scratching at his arm, he must have felt her die. A hand pulled him back before a book was thrust under him by an older man also covered in blood. Wearing armour that had managed to protect him from several small concussive projectiles, he picked the boy up to his feet and stared him directly into the eyes. The older man knew he wouldn't see him again, and the look in his eyes was a mix of pride and sadness.

"Son, protect this book with your life. This is our inheritance and our family's greatest treasure. Let no one use it!" His apparent father also handed the hilt of his katana to his son as well. With what seemed like all his strength, he grabbed the blade. At first, the younger Fukushi stayed still with tears flowing freely down his cheeks. The father also hesitated before pointing at the dead girl. "She gave her life so you could keep going. Don't waste it, son. Just go. Run! I will catch up as soon as we break their ranks." Fukushi got up and reluctantly turned to run, leaving his father to face off whoever was attacking. "Everyone, buy my son time to get away." He roared along with other unseen warriors. Sasuke left the memory.

"Another question, if I may; how did Fukushi allow the book to be stolen?"

The spirit looked down in sadness and mouthed the word 'betrayal' before pointing to another door. Through the door was Fukushi again. But he was a little older now. Wearing hardly anything to protect his modesty. Alongside him was a girl his age with ginger hair and lighter purple eyes, Monica, whom had a brown bolt of cloth to act as a cloak, and so keeping her that little bit warmer. Both were dirty and very thin with bones showing across his body, while their flesh was coloured blue from the cold. Fukushi was making best out of what clothes had as he cuddled himself, while dragging a sword still a little too big for him. He kept quiet, and was too shy to approach anyone.

The pair was gazing up at the people as they passed. Sasuke realised neither had any idea what anyone was saying, after a confusing encounter with someone who just ploughed right through them. That man was obviously angry with the insults he spat at them, but such rage simply fell onto deaf ears. Day after day, they spent drifting from one place to another. Occasionally hunting a bird or a rabbit to eat, or resorting to stealing. Fukushi appeared to be the only one using jutsu to his advantage, while Monica helped in any way she could by distracting or learning about their new surroundings. One day, while their latest catch was cooking, a rich looking elderly guy approached. This immediately put Fukushi on guard. However, with slow and deliberate movements, the man sat across the fire and spoke to him.

"I was watching you hunt and I'm impressed! Your mastery of jutsu so young." He smiled while Fukushi just gave a blank look. "Oh, you don't understand me? Wild children?" He thought for a moment before producing some bread out of a pouch and handing it to the pair. Monica was first to swipe it out of the man's hand and muttered thanks in a foreign language before hungrily devouring the bread. The elderly man got up and signaled to Fukushi to follow him.

"Come with me, I'll help you learn to speak." The young girl was first to get up to follow, having managed to put two and two together. Fukushi hesitated, but after a quick discussion with Monica, he eventually nodded and followed suit. Sasuke left the scene. He understood what she meant by betrayal now, and didn't want to or need to look any further. The fact of the matter was, that man did something to push Fukushi into the position he was in. Likely also the man took his eye out as well.

"Thank you for helping me, spirit." Sasuke said, lost in thought about what he was shown. He was cut short by the blue haired spirit's inaudible static for a voice.

"I knew he regretted everyone he has killed." Sasuke spoke. "One other question. How did Monica and Fukushi come to partnering up?" The spirit shifted uncomfortably. A flash of jealousy sparked in her eyes. Although, such a delicate emotion could have been due to her corrupted state before speaking again.

"Repaying a debt? Hmm, I understand." Sasuke spoke thoughtfully. Arguably, this mess would have been sorted with minimal casualties had they simply come and asked. Although, Sasuke felt hypocritical in his musings. He allowed a slight smile to take hold on his lips. Knowing how dark life could be, the pair of them likely did not know what else to do other than lash out, being unaware of the world they now lived in and sheltered from the wider picture.

Sasuke was satisfied of what he had learned about Fukushi, and decided to leave and give his report after using his dojutsu on Monica. He could always return to his mindscape if he missed something. Although the one-armed shinobi hesitated for a moment as a painful comparison was brought to his attention.

The likeness to the Uchiha massacre was uncanny for Sasuke, to the point being inside Fukushi's mind unnerving the shinobi. Although, he would never admit to it. Reality flooded back to Sasuke as he released Fukushi from the genjutsu. He was still unconscious, but running down the left cheek was a line of blood where he must have been crying whilst under the influence of Sasuke. He sighed and thought about his own redemption. He knew Fukushi's path well, but also perhaps, he could turn him into a powerful ally. The sheer diversity of jutsu he used against his opponents was clearly Jonin potential or maybe higher if he had more training. His mind was made. He would follow Naruto's example, and turn him to the right, better path.


	13. Chapter XIII Why? Because I'm an Uchiha!

**Excuse the tardiness, ending up like Kakashi. Who incidently is male in this story, to those who asked, it would have been an spelling error.**

 **Remember to review, comment, follow and such. Opinions and critiques are all welcome. Still looking for pictures for my profile and story image.**

 **Thanks to Missrach (almost said kissrach, which isn't far from the truth) but she is still editing my shocking attempt at writing English.**

"-H-hey Fuku… you there?-"

"-Hm? Yeah I'm here.-"

"-I er mn… sorry.-"

"-It isn't your fault. It was a half-baked idea anyway.-"

"-I was just so scared. I c-couldn't do it.-"

"-We're still alive. We can still do this.-"

"-Yes, but…-" Monica pulled on her constraints, which tightly bound her against the wall. "-we are still stuck here.-"

"-Can you see anything?-"

"-mmn no, they blindfolded me too.-"

"-So, how did they catch you?-" Fukushi asked. For all he knew, Monica was as brave and confident as she had always been. To hear she was scared, made Fukushi feel a wave of guilt spike through his gut.

"-I… it was when.. when…-"

"-I know. I figured as much, so you don't have to think about it, alright?-"

"-A-alright, for you.-"

Monica heard her partner sigh heavily. "-Sorry… for being so naïve.-"

"-No… you were following tradition. It's not ideal, but you wanted to keep our home alive in our minds." Monica couldn't see this, but Fukushi hung his head. "-I was meant to grow up and become a farmer. You were to grow up and become a renowned librarian. A powerful and respected person to guide the knowledge of our family to the next generation.-" There was a clear sense of awe in Monica's voice. The caste system had much to be desired, but overall each person had a role and place within the family. "-You were always meant to be the protector, saviour, and leader. I was always meant to be the servant, the supporter.-"

"-Thank you, for understanding… but if we are to get through this we should be on equal terms.-"

"-But what about tradition?-"

"-What good is tradition when we are both dead?-" Fukushi snapped a little at his friend, but then his voice grew soft. "-I was scared, too. Alright, I just… didn't know what to do when I found you. I thought the worst had happened.-"

Silence fell on the two prisoners as they thought about their situation.

"-If we manage to escape, can we go somewhere far away from anyone who would threaten us. We can rekindle our family there. Rebuild Yuuhi and our home. Just you… and… me.-" Both teens blushed at the implications of restarting a family in such a way.

"-If… one thing at a time.-"

* * *

Naruto, in much better conditions, was staring over the city in clear thought. The leaf shinobi were planning to leave the next day having completed their mission, but something did not sit well with the Uzumaki. He had overheard that the pair would be executed for attacking Iwa shinobi. Public executions were somewhat of a rarity since the end of the forth ninja war. Being allied had meant no side had to resort to killing prisoners in such a way. Nevertheless, it was a bitter pill to swallow.

"Why do you grieve for them, kid?" Kurama's voice rumbled from within Naruto. "You clearly understand they must pay for their actions. You understand the wider world now that you've finally matured from being a simple brat."

"Just wish there was something I could say that would spare them?"

"Always taking the harder path?"

"Damn right, furball."

"And yet there is one answer to Pein's question. Total annihilation. A dark prospect to stomach. Should even one survivor arise, then the whole cycle starts again. The Uchiha is a prime example."

"What's your point?"

"My point is there are only two of them. Both condemned, and no one to feel pain once their souls enter the realm of the Shinigami."

"It's a choice you simply cannot accept, isn't it, Naruto?" A familiar male voice called from behind. Naruto turned to face his friend, Sasuke.

"You heard what I was talking about?"

"No, but I can see it in your body language." Sasuke tapped his right eye before joining Naruto looking over the city.

"Kurama is right. The same could have been said for me. Had my brother… Itachi… completed his mission, then there would have not been myself to avenge him. It would have certainly made your life easier."

"But emptier."

"Hn." Sasuke glanced at his blond companion. "You see the answer now?"

"I have always known. It's just…"

"Stop thinking so much. It's not like you. You're strong enough without some intelligence behind it."

"Was that a dig at me?" Naruto lightly punched Sasuke on his existing arm.

"It might have been. Look Naruto, I knew the situation is different, but you've been able to forgive me. Hell even Sakura has forgiven me. These two have simply fallen onto the wrong path and so could easily be spared the execution. Life is precious, you taught me that."

"An Uchiha with compassion? Now I have seen everything." Kurama interrupted.

"Shut it ,furball." Both Jonin spoke in unison.

"Bah. You know what happens when you piss me off, little humans." The practically heard the Nine-tails take a deep breath as if he was calming himself down. "So, what is your plan, Uchiha?"

"My plan? Oh… Never mind. Just when you see it, I trust you to play your part." Sasuke gave a smile before he put his finger to his face and shunshin'd away in a flurry of leaves. Leaving Naruto utterly confused until he shouted out loud to no one in particular.

"You're supposed to tell me what to expect, you idiot!" Naruto simply threw his arms up in defeat. When Sasuke was around, who knew what his plans were.

Kurama sat in his hosts mindscape. The colossal beast stretched out like a cat before setting down to his musings. Scratching another strike onto the floor covered in tallies. 'When will that idiot key in that he is being watched by that Hyuuga mate.' Of course, being a creature of pure chakra had meant he could sense everyone with distinct clarity. Complete with emotions, thoughts, and desires. This was reflected in Naruto when he would activate his biju-style, and to a lesser extent, his knack for judging character were all enhanced by Kurama's co-existence.

Hinata, by contrast to the status quo, was like an open book to the nine-tails, as her chakra takes a pink-red hue of passion, and even spikes in potency whenever she sees the jinchuriki. Kurama had been the first to notice her feelings towards Naruto. He had even tried to incorporate her into his plans for freedom, nearly succeeding during Peins' attack when Naruto momentarily believe she had died. The giant fox sighed deeply. He was somehow glad that Naruto was stronger than that, because the world would still be just as lonely even if he was free.

"Naruto? Was that Sasuke?" While Kurama was musing to himself, the Hyuuga in question had built up the courage to walk up to her love. Something that grew easier over time for her.

"Hn? Oh, hey Hinata. Didn't see you there."

"I just came to tell you that we are all ready to leave now."

"Hmm… Is it alright if I check up on Lee before we leave?"

"Of course." Hinata gave him a warm smile. "Would you like me to come with you?"

"Sure. I think he would appreciate the support." The pair set off to find Lee, naturally heading towards the training ground, as this was the kind of place he would go to while grieving. He did so during Neji's death, so it made logical sense to check there first.

* * *

Both prisoners 'stared' at each other through their blindfolds. The desire to talk had long since passed. Iwa interrogation had decided that Monica had the weaker will, so instead, they subjected Fukushi to certain methods in order to stress her out enough to spill. For the sake of progress, physical torture was thankfully deemed too barbaric in Iwagakure, but that had meant they delved into psychological torture.

Indeed, they had taken inspiration from the Uchiha's genjutsu technique, the Tsukuyomi. While unable to create an exact replica, the interrogator had managed to dilate time for Fukushi while he visualised being painfully stabbed. Effects of which only lasted until the body reacted to being stabbed, and the chakra was disrupted enough to shake off the genjutsu. A flaw that Uchiha manage to circumnavigate, but not the Iwa interrogation.

Currently, they had given up on Fukushi and left with only saying 'We will continue with your whore later' before leaving the pair in silence. They had a sound recording of whatever was spoken in their strange language with the theory that trigger words could be identified and therefore the language understood. Not that anyone cared if they gleamed any information out of them. Rumour spread fast that the pair of prisoners were for the chopping block.

Off to the distance, they could hear the prison door opened. Both winced, but steeled themselves without a word spoken. Monica had heard Fukushi as his torture continued. At first, she cried and protested, but over the course of their visit, she grew quiet and submissive. Chakra completely cut off from being formed, hand seals or not. So there she hung, pinned to the wall and entirely helpless and in her defeat. Monica wanted to be strong for Fukushi, but as she heard the footsteps approach she just started to shake.

The last Uchiha walked into the cell that housed said prisoners and glanced at them both. Still clothed in their medical gowns from being medically studied. He inwardly tutted how they were blindfolded with seals as if both possessed dojutsu. 'Both mentally subdued.' Sasuke made a note.

"Neither of you had any real training, hadn't you?" Both appeared to slum even further than thought possible. The Uchiha's voice cut through the silence, and appeared to dispel something in the air that held the prisoners in form of stasis.

"We just never had to resort to… these tactics." Fukushi spoke out. He recognised the voice, and tried to regain some sort of subconscious footing. Only so effective after you watch and feel the cold blade stab you over and over.

"-Fuku… can we just tell them what they want to know… I want to get out of here… Please we don't have anything but pride left.-" Monica spoke. She had not realised, but Sasuke's dojutsu was able to translate her words for him. So effectively he was able to listen in by reading her lips. She seemed tired more than anything else. Her mind exhausted from processing so much simulants under stress.

"-It's that guy who outclassed me, he's dangerous.-"

"-Please.-"

"You're willing to spill secrets just to save your friend? Tsk, so easy."

"And what would you do for those you love?" Monica suddenly hissed. "I heard about you ninja, always talking as if your home is the most important thing in existence. Well, guess what? We lost ours, so fuck you. Fuck this place. Fuck torture. Just get it over with and fuck off."

"Brave, but I am not here to torture the pair of you."

Monica let out a deep gasp because she held her breath in preparation to the pain. "Then, what do you want?"

"To ask a question."

Silence between the three of them. He had their attention.

"What motivates you?"

"What?" Fukushi spoke this time. "What's your angle?"

"Many things can motivate different people to do different things. Based on your answer, I'll be able to judge you and then… we can see what happens next." Sasuke was pleased with their reaction. Instead of just blurting out some plausible excuse, they both blushed and tilted their heads away. Deep in thought. "Fukushi?"

"To rebuild everything myself and Monica had lost. I… just don't want to lose anything else now. I was angry, now I am scared."

"And Monica?"

The red-head blushed a brighter red before spluttering out. "It's none of your business to ask a girl that."

"I see so you have the same motives?" Monica whimpered at his blunt statement, shying away from the truth. "In that case. I'm going to start collecting these pages. For that, I'll need the two of you alive." He managed to get a reaction off both prisoners.

"Why should we trust you?" Fukushi spoke up with spite in his voice.

"Although I'd imagine you would have trust issues, you aren't exactly in a place to do much about it. You two are to escape and preferably before they execute you." Sasuke spoke slowly and sternly, making sure they understood his demands. Although, visible anger was starting to show on the younger males' face. Clenching his teeth as if it took all his might to speak his mind.

"And what is the price we must pay?"

"I want your version of jutsu. Ever since we had fought on the roof tops of Iwagakure… Your unusual hand signs and the way you are able to manipulate chakra as if it was a limb to your body… What can I say? It's valuable and my village would covet it."

"No way! I'm not so naive to assume you won't do anything with my families' knowledge!"

"Perhaps another incentive. Is knowledge worth more than her?"

"Tsh… Of course not. I couldn't abandon her, and they knew it!" Sasuke's eyes narrowed. While Fukushi clearly was referring to Monica. Sasuke had actually meant that spirit who was still bound within his conscious. He either chose not to realise she still existed, or his mind had cracked under the rebound to the point he simply could not tell.

With movement as quick as a viper. Sasuke ripped off the sealed blindfold and looked directly into his purple eye. No sooner had the light poured into the Solaris survivor, then did he fall into the Uchiha's genjutsu. Sasuke's mission was simple; repair the synaptic link. While he was not a Yamanaka who would manage to completely reverse all the damage to someone's psyche, Sasuke was able to do a sufficient job at disturbing the balance within Fukushi.

A minute had passed before Sasuke stepped back. He would have liked to be as skilled as the Yamanaka, but he simply lacked the formal training and practice or even paid the clan any attention. Hindsight was twenty-twenty after all.

Fukushi soon regained consciousness, but wished he hadn't as immediately pain swallowed up his entire skull. Wave after wave of throbbing pain left him grunting and gasping for air. Audibly in distress to which Monica heard.

"-Fuku? Fuku! Say something!- What did you do to him you bastard! If I ever see you I am going to make you suffer! Fuck -Fuku say something! Anything!-"

"He will be fine. I just reminded him of something."

"I'll make your fucking precious village burn! Stomp on your family. Make sure they know it was you who killed them!" Sasuke felt the low blow. She had not known his family was also murdered, but did not stop her from shouting at him. Sasuke's rage built up inside him.

"You know nothing!" He punched the vulnerable teenager hard in her stomach. Such force made her cough up blood and fall unconscious. "Just be awake when you make your escape." The Uchiha turned to the one-eyed ninja opposite her, walking up calmly before pulling his limp head up to face him. Blood already started to trickle down his nose.

"Now, you need line of sight before you teleport? It's to visualise the seal and to make sure it's a safe position. Therefore, I'll make a slight genjutsu to fool everyone you have no sight. When the time is right, it'll dispel and allow you to escape."

Fukushi was not in any mind to reply. He just breathed heavily and sharply in attempt to curb the pain. The Uchiha simply nodded to himself before taking off all the bindings. Once done, he weaved a few hand signs. Silently executing the genjutsu, dark bindings appeared to materialise from nowhere on the young man's body, hoisting him up to the wall as if nothing ever happened. Quickly, he snatched up the real blindfold from before and pocketed it. It simply won't do to leave evidence. He was much better than that.

The scheming Uchiha simply left the prisoners to their pain. His plan set in motion, and now he simply had to ask the Tsuchikage to give him the two pages he had. He doubted the leader of Iwa would mind because after all, they were useless to him. Sasuke gave a passing glance at the Iwa interrogators, who appeared confused to why the Uchiha was there.

"I doubt you'll get much of anything out of them. I cleaned them out for you." And he kept on walking.

* * *

A day had passed. The prisoners blissfully unaware of this fact, as all the teams assembled to deal with the threat were preparing to leave back to their respective villages. Sakura wished she could have spent more time with Sasuke, but he simply tapped her forehead as he passed, simply saying he had something else to do first. Shikamaru was interestingly enough last to gather with the leaf Jonin. He had seen Lee just before to give him some pointers of ninjutsu training so his Genin weren't to miss out of that side of the ninja life. The rest of the Genin training program were initially excited to be doing something other than exercise. A fleeting feeling because Lee naturally ramped up the difficulty almost immediately, despite not being able to perform ninjutsu at all.

In the centre of Iwa, just in front of the Tsuchikage's tower, was a plaza. Today, it was unusually full of ninja and civilian alike. Several even taking to the roofs around the plaza, all to see the show that their leader had put on. Excited chatter filled the air as all but the most introverted had been aware of the attack which happened only a couple days ago.

Onoki slowly walked to the stand in front of his tower. A platform that jutted out from the top of the stairs. His small stature filmed by many cameras. All angled in such a way to improve his image as the absolute leader of Iwa. By the time the elder man crossed the space between his tower and the stand to make his speech, there was silence in the crowd.

"People of Iwa. Fellow subjects. I stand today to pass judgement on those who dared attack our peaceful city." He looked around before firmly looking out ahead and down the valley. "These heathens sought to destroy this peace we've all enjoyed, for their own selfish gain. To kill not only our proud citizens, but those of our blessed allies. Taking life as if it was theirs to take."

While the crowd kept silent upon his words, some bowed their head in grief, while others silently whispered revenge.

"However." His words cut the crowd. "Their sacrifice was not in vein, and I have the pleasure of exacting the justice they deserve." He raised his hands and upon command, a hatch behind him opened up carrying two blindfolded and bound prisoners. Accompanying them were six ANBU agents of Iwa. Each fully decorated and armed to the teeth as if they had meant to kill a whole army. Painted masks kept their identity a secret.

Upon their entrance the entire crowd shouted insults at the two teenagers in unison. The fact they looked so young did not even register among the inhabitants. Both wore black robes and literally nothing else apart from their bindings. Their feet were bare, and what was visible of their faces had bruises and cuts as one ninja was able to exact some revenge before their time was up. Not that anyone would have batted an eye over this information.

Slowly, they were pulled to stand. The taller of the ANBU easily pulling their binds painfully up above their heads and so the blind could barely touch the ground with their toes.

Sasuke, by now the only non Iwa shinobi left in the village, stood on a balcony overlooking the event. Unnoticed, he raised his hand to release the genjutsu he used to fool a whole village.

The young man dragged to be beside the Tsuchikage for execution suddenly dropped to the fall. All of his bindings dematerialised and freed the Torro branch. Light pooled into his eye painfully, but the knock had reminded him to do something. 'Move!' One-word Fukushi heard loudly in his native tongue. He could not question it. He could feel the ANBU behind him reacting suddenly and grabbing his right arm painfully. However, his left arm was free to grab his only friend in the world, Monica.

A flash of lightning, and the pair were gone from their execution. A quick look around discovered they had not moved far. Onoka practically growled his orders.

"Kill them both." His ANBU obeyed and shunshin'd towards their targets.

On the rooftops, Fukushi wasted no time in unbinding Monica, forcing his headache to the back of his head. He felt dizzy and exhausted, but had someone to protect and for her, he'd push himself to his limit.

"-Monica, something's…-" He couldn't finish his sentence as an already enraged ninja had reached their position. Rocky spikes erupted from the building roof and headed straight for them. Fukushi tackled Monica, and in another flash, they were further away.

The one-eyed shinobi immediately vomited on the ground in front of him. Although it was mostly bile, he still sank to his knees while retching and clutching his head.

"-Wha…-"

"Fuku?-" Her voice started, as she shook her friend to see if he could snap out of his daze. To him though, he was sure he heard two voices.

"-Did he…-"

"-Snap out of it. We need to go. I don't get it either, but please get up, Fuku!-" Monica stood up and as quickly as the wind, she summoned her wakizashi. The blade materialising in her hand in a puff of smoke. Her newfound confidence in protecting someone she loved fuelled and inspired her to push her abilities.

Monica gracefully jumped in front of Fukushi, and her blade in reverse grip parried a kunoichi who was close enough to attack them. With lightning reflexes, Monica spun, and her outstretched bare foot connected with the face of her opponent.

Two blue fireballs flickered into existence just in time to deflect two kunai being flung at Fukushi. Monica slowly turned to see who dared. Standing across the roof was a very young looking Genin. Practically shaking at the realisation that his attack had absolutely no effect. Now her attention was solely on him. She raised her free hand, and willed her chakra to form a blue ball of fire.

The Genin wanted to move. To dodge. But the look in her eye told him to stay. Killing intent paralyzing the boy. The jutsu fired and hurled a fireball directly at him. Before the projectile could clear the rooftop, an adult jumped across the space and deliberately got in the way of the Genin and his death.

The kunoichi from earlier was clutching her side as smoke wisped from in between her gloved fingers, holding her sword in her free arm.

"Go little one. I'll cover you." Her voice was clearly in pain, but had done her job and snapped the Genin from his fear. "Find your teammates and protect them, alright?"

"But, Sensei?" He called, just as Monica leaped at her again with brutal strikes, sparks flying from each parry.

"Just go!" The teacher jumped away, making some distance, before throwing a kunai armed with an explosive tag at the red-head. A returned kunai grazed her shoulder. Momentarily confused over the pain, she did not see her opponent retrieve any such weapons.

"-Fuku, we need to go, now!-"

"-Gah. Give me a minute. I can hardly see more than ten feet.-"

"-Fuku?-"

"-I'm fine. Just give me a minute.-" He slowly stood up, blinking his sole eye rapidly, while his vision blackened from the pain in his head. He was sure he saw someone with blue hair just then, calmly smiling at him. An image gone when a fresh spike of pain almost forced him to his knees.

Monica managed to roll out of the way of an explosion. Rocks rained painfully onto her back, but she could not rest as a spike suddenly threatened to skewer her from the floor upwards.

"-Oh, will you just fuck off!-" Monica screamed in her own tongue before practically throwing blue fire in a wave. The flames acted like liquid and 'spilled' over towards the Jonin, who immediately jumped away to safety. She immediately sealed her weapon, as sheathing it was not possible, and ran to her saviour. "-Fuku, snap out of it!-" Her hands grabbed his robes by the shoulder, and she looked straight into his eye. "-I know it hurts, but please focus on my voice. You overcame this pain before and you'll do it again. I trust you. You're amazing and despite the odds, you always pull through. But you cannot relapse here. Not now. Not when I need you.-" She kissed him roughly. Her forcefulness allowed for his only eye to focus on her. To see her, clear as day. He nodded before looking over her shoulder and teleporting away. This time as far as he could see.


	14. Chapter XIV Stubborn as an Uzumaki!

**Please continue to comment and review my work, I am trying to improve my writing all the time. As sometimes i feel this is very rough work, but so long as someone enjoys it, I am happy.**

 **Thanks to Missrach for her editing. Making my writing into a story :D**

The foreign pair burst in a bright flash up on top of the village wall surrounding. Fukushi leaved against the battlements and took deep breaths. His body visibly showing the abuse he pushed through since their betrayal by those who Fukushi and Monica thought were their allies. He could feel each and every coil within his body prickle like they were hot. That was until the splitting headache returned with a vengeance. Monica immediately leaped to his aid in case he fell over. She herself was tired already but the red head steeled herself to push her body to the limits. There would still be some fight in her yet. Especially if it meant protecting Fukushi.

Sensing danger all around the girl drew her weapon once more. Seeing movement from a nearby building Monica used her free hand to form a fireball. No sooner had it been fired a noise from behind alerted her and with full control over her flames the ball catapulted past her shoulder, hair flicking past the rush of heat.

Satisfied that whoever tried to surround them had obviously backed off in the smoke left by her jutsu. The girl spun on her foot and picked up the man she loved only to look firmly in his eyes.

"-One more jump and we have escaped. Come on Fuku you can do it.-"

"-Hn… Every… thing… hurts.-"

"-I know, I know. But if we give up now we will lose everything.-" She lightly stroked his cheek under the scar that had taken his eye. While most would consider it disfiguring she only saw bravery and determination as he held off the world for a month single handed while training her as best as he could. It honestly hurt her to see him in such pain. Fukushi could hardly keep eye contact as the weight of his body slowly dragged him down.

"-Hey-" Monica snapped him out of his personal defeat. His remaining eye snapping to attention once again. "-Even if we don't make it I don't regret it. We got to see so many things together and do what our family long since thought impossible. I know I am being selfish asking you to keep going when it's all you've been doing for so long. But I won't blame you if this is the furthest you can go. I'm happy to stand by your side alright?-" Tears flowed freely down her cheeks. Her words were the truth and now with a saddened sigh she readied herself to meet death. Gazing at him for as long as possible. Taking in every detail as if it was the first time she had met him.

Fukushi swallowed hard. He wanted to move, to take her hand and run but his body just felt heavy and deaf to his demands. Most men would break and crumble seeing the only friend he trusted turn to face their enemies. Through sheer will power his hand slowly reached out to grab her shoulder. He slowly turned to look down the valley. One more teleport he promised himself. In a flash they were gone from the wall. Just as many very angry Iwa shinobi had moved within view. One of them even destroyed part of a building in frustration and yelled 'cowards' into the air.

The four Konoha Jonin were walking quietly down the valley towards home. Their silence was fortunately a comfortable one. Having nothing to say at the time and allowing reflective thoughts to hold each one. Naruto had forced himself to accept that this was to be done for Iwa. Pushed it to the back of his mind. Yes, he would have liked to have done more but as Sakura kindly pointed out; 'Naruto you have to trust the judgement of other villages if the alliance was to continue'. Only for him to look at Hinata who gave a small nod in agreement.

"Don't suppose any of you are free when we get back? Hinata?" The blond smiled as he directed the question to the raven-haired woman.

"Ano. Of course." Hinata swore her heart jumped there and then.

"Heh you know I almost miss you asking me for ramen Naruto." Sakura added. "Almost."

"Hey, you're more than welcome to join us."

"No no. Don't worry about it. You two enjoy your ramen together." The rosette managed to catch Hinata mouthing 'thank you' at her. She smiled back before taking in a deep breath of the mountain air. "Wonder what Sasuke is doing."

"Tsk only managed for forty minutes not to mention him." Shikamaru called from up front. It was a wonder he knew where he was going considering his eyes were closed for the last hour as they walked.

"Oh yeah? What about Temari? How long has it been since you last thought about her?"

"Hn troublesome. If you must know, I intend to see her as soon as that pandemic over at Suna dies down."

"Oh, how is my Grandmother doing?"

"You mean Tsunade? I found out before we left that she had found a vaccine but the ingredients for it are troublesome to say the least."

"You knew?"

"You never asked." Shikamaru sighed. "Such a drag."

"Well I hope everyone is ok over there."

"No one we know got infected which is very fortunate." The Nara clan head pointed out.

"I still hate to see people suffer."

"And what could you do Naruto? Punch a virus to death?"

"I could try."

Shikamaru smirked and muttered 'idiot' at that point. "Forever trying to do everything."

"No, I know Lady Grandma' can kick that diseases' butt!"

"Lady Tsunade is phenomenal when it comes to medicine. You'll see your darling Temari soon enough." Sakura teased.

Shikamaru snapped his attention to the front in order to hide his blush.

"So I'm allowed to think of Sasuke if you're allowed to think of Temari." Sakura was relentless in her teasing. Before an idea flashed in her eyes and she turned to Hinata who recognised that look.

"Say Hinata. Who are you thinking about?" She immediately blushed and glanced at Naruto who was walking by her side. Looking back at her with half an eye. Subconsciously he was more interested than he ought to be for her answer.

"I-I err… you shouldn't ask a woman w-who s-she likes." Hinata pointed her finger into the air as if she was reciting something she had learned.

"There is someone?" Sakura did not buy her excuse. Hinata's blush deepened.

"Stop teasing her Sakura. Not her fault she chose someone as dense as he is." Shikamaru defended.

"Is it… Na…" Sakura was about to literally spell it out for the couple before a flash of yellow light made everyone jump, instantly recover from the surprise, and drop into defensive positions. A moment passed before Hinata was able to assess the situation.

"Two people, nine o' clock. One's just collapsed and the other appears to be aiding them. Chakra signatures are very low."

"So they don't appear to be a threat?" Shikamaru answered.

"Doubt it."

"Approach slowly. Naruto, Sakura centre. Hinata left flank." Upon his commands the leaf Jonin slowly and stealthily approached to where Hinata spied the figures with her Byakugan.

Peering past the pine trees and the late ferns they could see two very recognisable people. Both wore a black robe and the orange haired woman was crying and speaking rapidly in a language none of them knew. The male, who appeared unconscious suddenly woke with a loud gasp. Surprised to see his partner holding him tightly. He just slowly and weakly stroked her hair. Loud sobs echoed through the clearing having finally allowed her emotions to come to the surface.

"Who the fuck is there?" The red head screamed suddenly. Three of the Jonin were confused but then they saw Naruto stand in plain sight not making any attempt to hide his presence. Said girl turned to face Naruto. Her cheeks were stained with tears and her eyes were bloodshot. The look Monica gave Naruto was like he just offended her very being.

To Naruto, the girl gave a brave face, but all the signs of fear were evident across her whole body. However, this was not necessary a weakness as Naruto knew better than most what a cornered person could potentially do.

"I want to talk." He spoke calmly but kept his gaze fixed on her.

"Bullshit. You just want to take me away from my Fuku!" She took a cautious step back figuring out the best escape route.

"Why would- No don't worry I just wanted to ask you something."

"N-no that's what he said. He told us he just wanted to talk and now Fukushi isn't moving."

"Who said? Sasuke?"

"I'll gut him for what he did!"

"And what did he do?"

"He was fine before and now he is hurting."

"What did he do?" Naruto spoke a little firmer. By now the rest of the team had made themselves known and Monica took another step back. Her foot brushing up against the unconscious man behind her. Audibly she whimpered.

"I don't know! Just something."

"Alright, alright don-"

"-Don't tell me what to do!"

Naruto held the bridge of his noise in quiet frustration. In the Uzumaki's defence he was trying the tactful approach for once. Not willing to push her too far otherwise, and Naruto did not know how he knew, Sasuke's plan might be jeopardised.

"Do you regret anything?" Naruto finally replied. Her reaction was instantaneous. Wide-eyed and in shock at the curve ball question. But as expectations had gone she then broke them by laughing to herself. She laughed loudly as if she found the entire situation hilarious and she laughed for so long the leaf Jonin shifted nervously.

Eventually she brushed her orange and tangled hair away from her face which burned red from her laughter.

"What part do I not regret? This whole life has just been shit. Moving from one hell-hole to the next."

"Think I am starting to understand."

"Understand what? Fancy comparing fucking notes? You are my enemy and I'd rather die then let you get at Fuku."

"No no I meant about Sas- never mind."

"What makes you so great? It's because we know things you might not? I wish he would just burn that fucking book! So then you! the high and mighty won't even look at us twice and leave us alone!"

"High and mighty?" Naruto spoke without thinking and Monica just hid her rage by the fringe of hair.

"You… you don't even see it?"

Fire flared from her hands. The blue glow fiercely flared up her arms. Burning just as angrily as she was.

"It's not fair. You're not fair."

She took a step forward. Fear of death now no longer her concern. The Jonin flinched and were ready to react. Monica took another step. Almost daring them to strike her down.

"I've seen it. The way you walk, the way you talk. Such pride in your job and such arrogance."

Fire appeared to spill like burning liquid from her hands and drip on the floor. Also setting fire to the grass. It was clear she was filling her attack with chakra. Shikamaru gave a concerned glance to Naruto who made no attempt to move. Hinata even whispered his name.

"Some do it for the money. Some love the thrill. Others are ordered. And some are fuelled with hate or love. I do it to survive! Don't you get it? you have the luxury of choice and what do I have? Fucking nothing!"

Monica reached back to deliver a punch on Naruto. Shikamaru instantly made a move to summon the shadows and entrap the woman before she hurt Naruto. But Naruto held out his hand to signal Shikamaru to stop.

Her fist connected.

In Monica's honour she had enough force to send a shockwave of chakra out from the collision, but Naruto remained standing like a standing rock. His flesh sizzled under the hand, yet it did not phase him as his own flesh burned under Monica's fire.

"Hurts doesn't it? Having nothing I mean. It burns literally more than your fury right now and I still remember it like it was yesterday. But the path you are choosing will only lead to more pain. I've seen it hundreds of times, what it can do to people." His sapphire eyes locked with her lavender ones. "I cannot tell you what Sasuke was thinking but you obviously did something right for him to help you." While it was Naruto's intention to reason with them and tell them that they are with friends not enemies. Monica gritted her teeth. "Look i don't know what happened to lead you into this situation, but please, let us help you get out-"

"I don't want your help." She stabbed Naruto as she interrupted him. Without flinching a kunai materialised in her hand and she buried it deep under his ribcage. The blond gave a weak smile before puffing into a cloud of smoke. He was faster.

She couldn't help it. A pained giggle escaped her lips as she whipped around trying to see the next attack, but none came.

"I only want to help you. Start afresh in Konoha." Naruto's voice asked from outside the smoke.

"Forgive me for not believing someone who literally lead me into a trap."

"Look I am sorry. I should have thought they might execute you."

"You should have… fucking hell are you that stupid!? We are murderers for fuck sake! No two ways of putting it. We kill and steal and lie an-"

"-Monica…-"

"-I'm a little busy sweetie.-" Although the red-head could not deny her heart skipped a beat from hearing his voice. She could hear him push himself to his feet albeit with great effort.

"-Sorry for blacking out… chakra exhaustion.-"

"-You're here now. That means the world to me.-"

"-Can't help much but at least I have my sword." He appeared to move slower than she was used to but he managed to move behind her and kept the flank safe. "-If we get out I feel like sleeping for a month.-"

"-How's your head.-" Monica asked without looking at her love.

"-Bad-"

"Neither of you are in condition to fight. You've been drained during your capture and Fukushi your chakra balance is dangerously off. If you have any left! We just want to talk, not fight. We won't take the advantage I promise."

"-You know these guys?-"

"-They technically saved me only to betray me and lead me to capture.-"

Shikamaru was reading their lips carefully. Trying to see what he could potentially understand from their schemes. The language seemed to have a few similarities, but he would have to spend a long time before he could understand anything meaningful.

"Please don't do this. I promise you Naruto only means well." Hinata spoke up in hopes of trying to persuade them to agree. Her voice was light and soft as it normally was. Everyone missed the subtle idea light up in Monica's eyes. Everyone bar Shikamaru that is who realised they were certainly scheming something.

"Bet you're the whore in the team. What are you? The moral booster for the real men?" Monica snapped her attention to the usually shy Hinata. They had silently assumed their opponents and picked the shiest and arguably the most beautiful in the group to attack first. Unfortunately, they assumed wrong.

"What did you say?" Hinata's eyes narrowed sharply.

"I hardly heard your voice at all. Too sore from sucking dick?"

"How dare you be so disrespectful. After all we did for you!" By now Sakura was also cracking her knuckles in preparation to show this kid some manors.

"Hinata they are just goading you into making a move." Unfortunately, his voice fell on death ears. Not on Hinata but Sakura.

"Listen here you ungrateful bitch we are going to drag your sorry asses back to Konoha only because Naruto and Sasuke want you to live. Now we could just throw you back into Iwa where you won't last an hour, or I'll drag your shitty ass back to the Leaf broken from the beating I'm about to give you."

She had cracked her knuckles and approached where the two foreign shinobi still stood in smoke. Although it had started to dissipate.

"-Wind Style: Gliding feet.-" Not a moment after did a flash too fast for even trained shinobi to keep track of burst out of the smoke. Had Shikamaru not foreseen this move he was sure Sakura would be trying to reattach her legs right about now.

Struggling in front of the rosette stood Fukushi with his sword by his hip ready to dissect the woman in front of him. He would have looked as he did beforehand only this time black shadowy arms wrapped around his arms and legs. Halting him instantly.

"Shad- Tsk." Fukushi managed to summon a bolt of lightning to strike the ground in front of him. Although Sakura had safely retreated out of the way. The yellow light dissolved Shikamaru's shadows as quickly as they had snared him.

"-Monica watch the shadows.-" Fukushi warned as he shook off the pain in his hands from using Chakra it was a small amount and even if it had hit someone it wouldn't do much apart from muscle spasms.

Monica leaped forward to strike at Hinata. Her sword slashing brutally left to right and right to left. Hinata showed her flexibility by bending out of the way and delivering a kick to her head. The girl tumbled away with her sword clattering onto the floor.

"Tsk Naruto they are as stubborn as you." Sakura commented.

"It'll be difficult but Sasuke saw something and that's good enough for me to do this the hard way."

Both Monica and Fukushi nodded at each other and with a single leap they were at the treeline. They both stopped to fire projectiles. Monica still had enough chakra to fire fireball after fireball. Four were sent at each enemy Jonin before she deliberately fired at the floor which flared up a large wall of fire between the two sides. Fukushi spent longer drawing chakra and his face was visibly pained as he concentrated. Four Kunai were summoned above his head and fired in sequence. Neither stayed long enough to see if any of their attacks actually did any damage.

"So why run now?" Sakura asked. They were apparently ready to fight to the death a moment ago.

"They are obviously outclassed currently. It is a good strategy to withdraw. Potentially try to shake us or set up a trap." Shikamaru pointed out.

"Ano… but that implies they have somewhere to retreat to." Hinata spoke with a heavy heart. She hated few things but having abuse shouted at her was certainly one of them. She had withdrawn herself like she used to when she was younger and combat scared her.

"Anywhere but here I guess." Sakura mumbled.

"Just ignore them Hinata. They just wanted to rile us up. But couldn't take advantage of it." Naruto gave her a wide smile which did help her feel better. More ways than she would admit to the blond of course. "Shall we go after them?" Naruto jumped through the fire wall without hesitation. Sakura looked at Hinata who nodded in reassurance. Both then jumped after Naruto leaving Shikamaru.

"Troublesome." He muttered before jumping over the already dying fire.

It did not take them long to catch up. Fukushi had slowed considerably due to his condition and was at risk of blacking out. It only took half a second. Light drained from the world and distance distorted to the point Fukushi was not sure where his feet were. A branch collided with his stomach. He tried to grab the wood, but his hands grated painfully on the sappy bark. The Torro branch member fell out of the forest canopy. Unconscious again before something else collided with his body.

Monica barely had enough time to leap back and catch her love before he hit the ground. No sooner had she landed the red head leaped up to engage Naruto who was seconds behind them.

Once more her blade found just a clone and she turned horrified to see Naruto nearby Fukushi.

"-Get away from him!" Her legs burned as she forced her body to change direction and jump after Naruto. The bark on the tree groaning under the pressure before the Uandi branch member catapulted herself towards Naruto. She landed with a rough swipe at the blond before she quickly pulled the now unconscious man behind her. Naruto looked at her softly. He did not appear threatening but that was a detail Monica missed.

"He needs medical help. Please let us help you for his sake." The girl tried to back off but only tripped and fell back on herself.

"-No!-"

"Please don't throw everything away you can't do this by yourself. There are always options to take."

"-Don't touch him!-" Her body had begun to protest too much due to chakra exhaustion. Her mind was trying to draw up plan after plan, but they quickly became too muddled or erased in favour of the next plan. Monica was panicking. Hyperventilating rapidly and her eyes darted about out of sheer terror. She had been in this position too many times. Monica closed her eyes and threw herself over the only ally she had. Monica had seen the fuuinjutsu before. Had them explained and even practiced a little bit. She knew the risks as they were the first thing she knew but whatever they were. It was far better than the fate her confused mind had created.

Naruto jumped back as a swirl of blue fire engulfed them both. Heat licked his skin before fading to the nothingness. The leaf Jonin was alone.

"Where did they go?" Hinata's calm and soft voice was the first to reach Naruto.

"Damn it why are they so damn stubborn." The jinchuriki groaned out of frustration.

"They are in a world they don't understand. Honestly I don't blame them for lashing out." Shikamaru answered the blond first. "People do that while vulnerable." His calculating eyes glanced at Naruto specifically. Being the obvious example of what could have been should his willpower ever faulter.

"But I did not even try to fight them."

"Naruto! They are terrified who knows what's going on in their minds."

"I hope they are alright."

"Ano. I'm sure they can handle themselves." Hinata reassured but honestly, she doubted her own words just as much as everyone else.

"Yeah. I guess we need to ask Sasuke what he knows about their minds. He mentioned something about being soul bound. Might be a way to understanding his plan with them." Sakura added.

"Now that you mention it. Sasuke was a bit vague about that." Shikamaru added.

"He may also know about their motives."

"You're saying…?" Naruto looked at his teammates.

"It'll be troublesome; but yes, we will help you. It is after all what you're best at."

"Cha! It's been a while since we had a real challenge anyway."

"I'm sure I've said this before." Hinata blushed. "But helping others is one of the best things about you." Naruto nodded and gave a smile in return for the complement.

"Alright so what should we do?" Naruto's voice had that high-spirited edge in it. One that allowed everyone to know he was determined to do this.

Shikamaru waved him down. "I know what you'd like to do but they aren't going to be near here. From what I know teleporting requires a sealing matrix. Sasuke mentioned it is very close to your father's flying thunder god techniques. Only main difference is they are able to remotely visualise the matrix instead of having it carved on kunai."

The Nara head looked around to see if everyone was falling. "She had her head buried in his chest. Even if she was looking; just look around." The three other Jonin did so. The small clearing had trees to all side. They grew tall and visibility was blocked on all sides by pine needles. At eye level they had hundreds of tree trunks all limiting the view distance considerably.

"Oh. So we would have noticed them by now if she was teleporting." Sakura spoke out first. Shikamaru smiled at her answer.

"Unless there are rules that we missed. Which seems to be the case."

"But that means they could be anywhere." Naruto looked somewhat dejected. Silence grew among the group and even birds started chirping now that the battle had ended.

"No." Hinata spoke up. "They had low chakra. Well Fukushi passed out several times because of exhaustion. But wouldn't performing high level jutsu kill them? Or misfire?"

"Technically it's difficult to kill yourself through lack of chakra. You pass out long before you could force out the chakra. Typically, it is your opponent taking advantage that's the real danger. Poisons or having a physically weakened body are really the only other way." Sakura, being trained in medical ninjutsu was able to answer Hinata. "In fact, often when shinobi get that second wind despite being out of chakra. It's simply their body using it's physical energy."

"But that doesn't mean it's much. She will pass out. Wherever they ended up" Shikamaru finished.

"Knowing Sasuke he probably planned for this and is already searching for them." Naruto thought out loud. "Going home and waiting for Sasuke would probably be the best use of our time."

"Troublesome you're starting to see the bigger picture. But I appreciate not having to explain any more than I have to. So should we go home?"


	15. Chapter XV Return, Report, Reunion!

**Well if you wanted more Naruto moments then you'll like the next few chapters, sorry for the odd times I post but life gets in the way as it always does.**

 **Thanks to Mrsrach for all your help.**

 **Please review so I know where I am messing up.**

 **Act II**

 **Four days later, in Konoha.**

"And that concludes the mission report." The Nara family head concluded. Wearing his 'informal' fish scale shirt and a light green hoodie on top. This allowed protection but was no where near as hot as the flack jacket during a heatwave. The plate with Konoha's leaf symbol stood proudly on high right shoulder. He had been spending the journey back thinking about all he had learned only to find Sasuke had managed to beat them to Kakashi by mere minutes. Therefore, the mysterious Uchiha was standing next to the team of Jonin.

"Interesting. Very Interesting." Kakashi leaned back in his chair and looked like he was deep in thought.

"I'm sure Sasuke is able to fill in any gaps in my report my lord."

"Enough of the lord business." Kakashi focused his eyes on Shikamaru before sighing and rummaging around some files. "Unfortunately, I have already received some information. Iwa has already updated the bingo book with both of their names in. Hefty price too. Apparently, they consider this an utter embarrassment to their reputation." Finding the document he wanted and carefully tidying up the pile of paperwork least he'd miss something by accident. "Here we go. Yeah highest bounty I've seen since the Akatsuki. Highest threat level and kill on sight too. Interesting individuals. Sasuke, you've had the most combat experience with them so anything to note?"

Sasuke had been waiting patiently. He had hoped to arrive much sooner than Naruto but that simply was not the case. Rather, he was happy that Naruto tried to talk to the pair and he was glad to know that everything had been going according to plan.

"They are primarily adept in ninjutsu and apparently have a deeper understanding of chakra compared to our teachings. Without any other evidence I cannot speculate how, when, or where they learned this, but it is apparent the male has had significantly more training. Their main weakness is genjutsu. Seemingly completely unaware about their functions. Their defence against it was merely a by-product of fuuinjutsu." Sasuke didn't miss the fact Naruto seemed hooked on those words. Being an Uzumaki he himself has a heritage of fuuinjutsu.

"What about this… Teleporting? Is it what I think it is?"

"It follows exactly the same rules as the flying thunder god technique. Fuuinjutsu acts as an anchor and the body is able to momentarily be converted to chakra and snap to the new space before materialising." Sasuke continued.

"The girl can teleport too." Shikamaru added flatly. Sasuke nodded at the new information but was not surprised.

"Some of my informants have told me they require line of sight? Care to elaborate."

Shikamaru looked at Sasuke to see who would clarify this. Sasuke nodded without mentioning anything and then spoke up.

"They visualise the matrix and apparently that works just as well as a physical anchor. Granted it must take good memory and lots of practice but completely bypasses the need to have a physical anchor. At the cost of a lot of chakra. I would not say he is as fast as Lord Forth. Not by a long shot."

"Alright. Alright. So should we consider these two a threat and find them?" The Sixth Hokage sighed. He had a gut feeling that this was far from over.

"Actually, I was wanting to ask for permission to find the pair and possibly recruit them to our village."

"Oh? Not what I was expecting from you Sasuke. Not seen you this interested in someone since Naruto."

"It surprised me too." Naruto butted in. "But I can see where is coming from. They need help. Not chased like animals."

"Tch. Don't get me wrong Naruto there is something we can gain from them too. Namely their unique manipulation of chakra. It is not a kekke genkai I can assure you."

"Oh yeah, I was hoping to ask you. May as well be now and save us both our time." Shikamaru turned to the Uchiha. "Last we saw them they were exhausted, confused and terrified and cursing your name. Do you know something?"

"Fukushi has a fractured consciousness and Monica had anxiety. Both will need psychological and trauma therapy. What you saw was their limits being pushed. It'll be a razor edge but hopefully they should prove to be valuable allies instead of enemies. Done so without blood."

"Sasuke. You know I've also looked at their medical records. They'll be less predictable this way. How can you be so sure?" Sakura said. While she only really concentrated on their physical wellbeing she could only imaging what kind of lives they were living to receive their injuries.

"I'm not certain on any outcomes but if I didn't do what I did then they may never seek out our help and we would lose this opportunity."

"I see what you're doing. Making them desperate in hopes they seek you out. Saves having to search for them when they could literally be anywhere." Shikamaru had pieced together Sasuke finally. "Sakura is right though, as I am sure you know. Push them too little they may just try and leave altogether but push them too far and you've created a monster."

"I Am sure we can get to them before that happens. Besides I'm good at bringing them back from the brink." Naruto spoke out. Although he did his usual guise of understanding; smiling and nodding. The parts he understood were clear to him.

"Right." Kakashi interrupted their musings. "Anything else to add?"

"One last thing." Sakura pulled out a scroll and channelled chakra into the seal. In a puff of smoke two files popped into their world. "These are the pages that Iwa had confiscated. I have reason to believe that there are not many left, but they are all in the Land of fire. I've already tracked one down in the land of clouds and should be receiving it in a week."

"Very well. I have decided. Sasuke you are to continue collecting these pages. Those two will be significantly less of a threat to anyone once those pages are out of the market. Shikamaru. The containment restrictions over Suna are about to finally come down. I'll need you to go over and re-establish trade among other administrative things. In the meantime. You're on translation duty for the language we've encountered on these pages. Sakura, Hinata, and Naruto you are free to do what you want to do but I'd prefer it if you are close to the village for now."

"Erm is it alright if I go with Sasuke this time?" The Rosette spoke with a hopeful edge in her voice. Sasuke rolled his eyes in response.

"I suppose I did promise." He was briefly worried that she would resort to her old annoying self but instead she just gave him a sweet smile and the conversation was over. To Sakura just being able to travel with him was enough.

"Alright I'll allow it. Though that means I cannot make further exceptions. You are all dismissed. Naruto though, I'd like you to stay." The Jonin turned and filed out of the room one by one. Hinata stopped by Naruto to give him a reassuring smile. Her pale eyes making contact with his sapphire ones. A Moment later and the student was left alone with his teacher.

"Am I in trouble?"

"Not at all. I was wanting your opinion quickly. I've come to judge your gut instinct well over the years."

Naruto sighed heavily. "I think they are falling down the wrong path."

"What about the death of Omi?"

"I… I feel angry that we lost one of our own ya-know? But there were many unforeseen circumstances. The girl's training being one of them. Gah I am just making excuses now but I know revenge won't be the answer."

"So is the path to be a ninja. She was not on your side, so she was against it."

"Thanks, I think I understand."

"You really shouldn't think so much. It's much to uncharacteristic."

Naruto smiled. "Many people have been telling me that recently. Maybe I am ready for Hokage?"

"Ha. Not even close yet." Kakashi laughed. Naruto momentarily was offended but the masked man continued. "You said you wanted to be the best right? Well you still need to grow some more you're not even twenty yet."

"Urg I knew it was going to be hard but not this long." He whined, sounding much closer to his younger self. Kakashi merely smirked from behind his mask in response.

"It'll be worth it Naruto I just want you to be more than ready for the job."

"So what did you need me for?"

"Well I think it's time you learned the Hiraishin?"

"My father's jutsu?" The blond stared in awe at the Hokage.

"Very same."

"Awesome." He grinned, and fist pumped the air in excitement. "Thank you. That's made my day!"

"I'd like you to concentrate on this training though. Get it down in four weeks. Don't have to be a master at it but it'll be another important string to your bow."

"Wait wasn't it a lightning type jutsu?"

"Oh, I'm sure you can work it out. It's a sealing technique remember, and you have Uzumaki blood in you. I'm not worried.

This renewed his excitement. If something was ever possible. "Alright I'll have it down in two weeks."

"I'd say eight weeks." A dull, seemingly uninterested voice called from behind Naruto. It's proximity caused Naruto to jump in surprise. Only to see Sai giving his best impression of a smile; about four inches away from the Uzumaki.

"Gah! Personal space!" Naruto quickly stood away from the pale shinobi.

"I'm putting my bet on nine weeks." An internal demon voice echoed within Naruto's mind. Naruto sighed heavily at hearing his words.

"Great enthusiasm guys."

"Think nothing of it kid. Someone has to dampen your spirits." Kurama replied before his voice grew distant until only the faint sound of deep chuckling could be heard by Naruto and Naruto alone.

"Ah right on cue." Kakashi interrupted the musings of the young adults. "Sai here has brought everything you'll need to get started. Including Minato's notes, his kunai, and instructions to make more." As he spoke Sai produced a large scroll which upon opening seemed to contain a sealing matrix with a few differences that a trained eye could pick up.

"It's a blood seal." Naruto spoke his mind.

"Yes, and one only accessible to an Uzumaki-Namikaze blood relative. Namely you."

"Makes sense. Hm I've been meaning to ask don't I have inheritance. You know being the son of the Hokage n' all?"

"Nice try. Unfortunately, you were officially orphaned with Uzumaki as a placeholder name. This'll be hard to swallow but in order to protect your identity; all your fathers' assets were dissolved to the village." Kakashi was worried he would flip in rage but Naruto managed to put on a mask to hide his emotions so fast that Kakashi only caught a flash of disappointment in his eyes.

"I guess it was to be expected." He spoke flatly.

"Now the scroll that Sai is holding was given directly to Lord Third and therefore is technically a gift to be given to you whenever the Hokage saw you mature enough to receive it."

"Then how come Old Granny didn't give me this when she was Hokage."

Kakashi gave a light giggle. "Just think how difficult you would be if you could just appear and disappear instantly."

"Those pranks would have been epic." The Blond smirked at all the opportunities he would have been able to pull off.

"Some things never change. Alright. Sai could you give the scroll over to Naruto. You are both dismissed. And Naruto if I hear that more than five pranks were pulled simultaneously with in the village I will find out and give you so many D-rank missions your great grand kids would be still doing them." The room grew dark under Kakashi's threat. The Sixth Hokage knew he had power to do this and that truth hit the message home as Naruto clasped his hands together and bowed.

"I swear I will not use my inheritance to pull pranks."

"I believe you, now go. I have paperwork to do." Naruto stood up while Sai passed the scroll over to the Jinchuriki.

"You should have sworn on Ramen and then we would know you were sincere." Sai quipped. Naruto rolled his eyes. Of course Sai had to get the last word in. That was something he excelled in.

Once Sai was alone in front of the Hokage he turned his attention to the older man. "To what is my command?"

"I'd like you to search for those two strange ninja. I am sure Sasuke is willing to help you with his spy network. They do not have much sensory skill but don't let that be an excuse for being sloppy."

Said blinked in mild confusion. "I am never sloppy." Kakashi thought about it then nodded at his testament. Sai seemingly satisfied with the mission parameters held his hand to his face. The stoic man vanished in a swirl of ink that splattered across the red carpet.

"I wish Sai would stop using his ink in here." The masked man glared at the black stain before sighing and looking back down to his report. Pencilling in Hinata's and Naruto's name into the short list of Jonin on stand-by. Short was the right description. The Leaf did not even have ten high level shinobi on reserve anymore.

Meanwhile Naruto was heading to his favourite Raman stand. They had since grown large as the building was rebuilt but also to accommodate the increased popularity after the war. Ichiraku's Ramen was the best place to find the hero of the Leaf and everyone knew it by now. So they would come here in hopes of seeing Naruto. He entered as two previous patrons left, they both quickly offered the boy thanks for everything. He smiled and politely waved them off. The leaf shinobi sat in his usual spot by the bar and stretched while Teuchi noticed him and walked up to the boy to grab his order.

"Another diplomatic trip?"

"No actually, something different. Successful though."

Teuchi leaned on the table. "Come now I know that face. Something is bothering you."

"Mn for once no. I know the answer I just feel bad about it still."

"In which case some Ramen will do you good." The chef patted the blond on the back. Very much fatherly.

"Yeah. I suppose it will. Don't worry I'll make sure this situation won't get any worse."

"A large bowl of Miso Ramen!" Teuchi shouted at the kitchen. A quiet 'sure' could be heard from within. Satisfied his order came through the older man sat down opposite Naruto.

"Care you explain the situation? You always feel better talking it out."

"Is the short version alright?"

"Sure. I understand. Ninja business."

"Well it turns out there are two very strange shinobi in Iwa. They were betrayed and tried to cover their mistakes which obviously blew up way too big for them to handle. They escaped though which in a way I am ok with. Iwa is wanting their heads on a chopping block. But they also killed many people one of them from our village. That why I feel bad, they'll end up hunted out of revenge and the entire peace we've been fighting for may crumble because of it."

"You think two could do all that?"

"You can only push someone so far."

"Heh, I trust you my boy. You'll get through their heads and quite probably end up bringing them here." Teuchi gave a smile. Naruto was good for business as everyone he had saved had so far ended up buying ramen right here in his restaurant.

"Is that Naruto? Oh Hey! I'll get more ramen cooking in which case. Five bowls? Different meat in each?" She waved and smiled brightly at the blond. Who in turn waved back.

"Yes, thank you. Err thanks for listening to me. I think I am over-thinking it." He gave a smile to his father figure. Naruto pushed it to the back of his mind. Although he could not help but feel in his gut that something big is about to happen.

"It's only natural. You've achieved much and you are just making sure it's…" Teuchi paused to see a small family enter and take seats by the window. "Protected. Please excuse me, Customers." Naruto was left to dig into his Miso Ramen while waiting for the rest of Ayame's bowls to turn up. Taking a deep breath. ' _Nah nothing as bad as I fear could happen. I'll make sure of it.'_ His shoulders relaxed, and he looked around to take up the scene at the restaurant. It was much bigger than the small street stand it used to be. Yet it kept a lot of the feel that Naruto used to enjoy when he was younger. The bar he sat at still had the same curtains they always did. The menu was even the same if not a little more diverse to match the tastes of today's world.

Soon Ayame started producing the bowls of steaming ramen with a cheerful smile. She would have stopped to talk but the orders were already stacking up. Besides. he was munching through his third bowl when a familiar voice interrupted him.

"Geeze Naruto, you never change." Sasuke commented with vague interest. Sakura was also taking up on his flank.

"Care for a bowl of ramen?" Ayame asked as she carried another bowl to Naruto.

"No thanks, I'd like to get to the next town over before nightfall. Although if you have some rice balls ready to go I'll have them."

"Wrapped up?"

"Please." Ayame placed the bowl in front of Naruto before disappearing into the kitchen.

"We just wanted to say goodbye before we leave." Sakura said. It was easy to tell from her voice alone that she was happy.

"I have a present for you Naruto. I found this while on my travels. It's just a scroll of some wind jutsu. But I figured you would make better use of it than me." With his remaining arm, Sasuke handed over a small, tightly bound scroll. "It's something to do with wind waves and bolt I think. Bit of offensive stuff." Sasuke explained through his fringe of hair. Never once showing emotion. By the time he had finished his speech the rice balls were presented to him in a small box. Both he and Sakura bowed in thanks.

"Bye Naruto." Sakura called out as they turned to leave. Naruto was sure he caught Sasuke muttering. 'See you around.' Naruto gave them a wave before pocketing the scroll he was given. Making a mental note to repay the Uchiha with something useful.

Finishing up his meal the blond decided to head to the training field to see what his new scroll possessed. Some light training before sundown and he thought that today was a very productive day. As he approached the ground he spied that they were already taken. Three figures were all having a sparring match with each other in what looked to be a battle royal. First was a young ninja who wore standard shinobi pants but with a Konoha-green jacket and an old worn blue scarf.

Second, was a young kunoichi with bright orange hair set into two pony tails. Wearing a purple jacket opened to reveal her pink shirt underneath and wore a purple skirt that was cut above her knees for movement reasons. She was by far the most vicious in her attacks and had the other two on the defensive.

Last of all was another male. He was struggling the most as apparently it was taijutsu only match and so he tried his best to disengage whenever possible. Wearing blue shinobi pants and a white shirt. His usual black hoody was discarded a few feet away.

Of course, Naruto only saw three recently promoted Chunin. Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon. He calmly walked towards his younger friends who were still having their match. Udon by now had been kicked to the ground. Meogi was obviously much more flexible than Konohamaru and so he was starting to lose out as well.

"When your opponent is faster than you. Allow them to strike at areas you can take damage while protecting the parts you can't, better. You'll never be able to out pace them. It's hard because your instinct is to block all their hits."

"Easy for you to say boss. She's vicious-ooft." Just as he said that, Moegi delivered a punch deep into his stomach. Felling the young Chunin in a single blow.

"Winner to Moegi." Naruto chimed. Smirking at the spectacle.

"Big brother Sensei how come you're visiting us?" Moegi smiled at her brother figure.

"Now now I don't need a reason to see my three favourite kids."

"We aren't kids anymore." Konohamaru managed to recover.

"Well honestly I was wanting to go and train." Naruto admitted.

"In that case. Mind if we spar against you." Udon asked with a sniff. "They've been sparring without ninjutsu for so long I fear I'll get rusty."

"Heh that's because your fire traps hurt." Konohamaru prodded his teammate.

"Yeah I have gone through half my wardrobe fighting you with ninjutsu." Moegi added. Glancing over at Udon.

"I Don't mind a little fire jutsu. I'll bite. Three of you against one of me."

"Somehow I don't think this is still fair." Konohamaru whined.

"Hey Konohamaru, tactic mouse trap." Udon whispered. However, Naruto overheard.

"Not using numbers? I dig it."

"I read it somewhere it can help throwing off your opponent who may have trained for numbers as triggers." Meogi said proudly. All three walked some distance away from Naruto. Konohamaru on his left, Moegi on the right. Udon centre and back.

Naruto kicked things off with a set of shadow clones. Nine in total, three for each. Moegi sprung into close combat immediately while Konohamaru first made two of his own shadow clone, the maximum he could manage in combat, and had them defend Udon. Said Chunin did not move from his spot but instead threw a handful of tacks into the air and allow them to land in a ring around him.

The real Naruto saw his opportunity and launched himself at Udon.

"Fire style: dragon's breath." Bright hot fire came from Moegi.

"Wind Style: Spiralling gale." Konohamaru managed to push a clone back far enough to get his jutsu free. He had only a few seconds, but he pushed his wind out into a gale.

"Fire style: Fiery steps." Spouts of flame erupted under each of the clones. Half were fast enough to escape but those who were too locked in combat got caught and dispelled as the heat damaged them sufficiently.

One clone found out the hard way what Udon's tacks did should you step on them. The poison affected the clone almost instantaneously and after a pained grunt that clone puffed into smoke.

The trio knew better than to assume they had won. Despite pouring a lot of chakra into that attack they immediately took advantage of the remaining clones and renewed their attack. Moegi able to keep up with her flexibility. Something Naruto had always found hard to counter. Konohamaru was about to get chopped by a clone to the back of the neck before a very precise explosion popped the aggressor behind the young Sarutobi. Udon had fired an explosive fireball.

The fighting stopped when a hearty laugh was heard from within the large fireball surrounding Naruto. A Burst of raw chakra blew their attack to shreds and the flames vanished a moment later. Standing in the middle was a laughing Naruto.

"Oh, I get it. Mouse trap. Udon's the bait and you two are the trap. Nice teamwork guys." He cracked his knuckles. "What's next." He said with a 'tough love' attitude.

Moegi rushed in for a spar. However, the real thing was vastly superior to the clones. Naruto was able to counter her speed by appearing sloppy and allowing her to hit him. However, she was aware none of these attacks were effective. Naruto moved just enough for all her hits to be glancing. Spinning on her heal she drew out a kunai but was met with his. The fight continued only this time the clashing of metal on metal rang out of the training ground.

"Hey Naruto. Remember this? Fire style: Ash cloud." Said teenager took a deep breath and exhaled a large plume of black smoke over to Naruto. Moegi kept on fighting until the last moment when Konohamaru snapped his fingers. The spark he made ignited the cloud. Although the result could not have been more disappointing. Once the fireball cleared only a very charred log remained.

"Udon! Behind you."

Udon did not reply but instead he swivelled around and concentrated on his jutsu. Several jets of fire erupted under Naruto's feet. He would dart around only to have more trap activated where Udon thought he was going to land. In a few seconds the traps started getting more diverse. What looked to be a fireball exploded into several kunai. One even grazed the Uzumaki on the leg.

Naruto while he was rushing around managed to keep Moegi at bay with a single kunai thrown at her. She was forced to dodge but returned with shuriken.

"Rasengan." Konohamaru shouted as he dived onto the blond. Naruto half summoned a rasengan of his own and used it to block his opponent attack. The resulting explosion propelled Konohamaru into the air. Naruto jumped after him and kicked him down on top of Udon whom fell onto his own tacks. He was wide eyed for a second but them passed out from his own toxins. Fortunately, he never used lethal tacks for this very reason. Unfortunately, because he hated close combat they were very fast acting.

Moegi was the last one standing now as she faced Naruto who gave her a smile as if to say 'no hard feelings'. He threw his last kunai at the red head. In the time she was distracted he closed the distance and she could only raise her guard to block his fist.

It should be well known that 'blocking' an attack from Naruto was never a good idea as the girl was catapulted across the field with a high pitched 'eep'.

"Ah that was fun." Naruto stretched and clicked a few of his muscles. He only got moans off two of the three Chunin. "Great to see you too guys."

"Konohamaru!" A surprised squeak startled the Uzumaki from his musings. He turned to see both Hinata and strangely the owner of that voice… Hanabi. Who instantly blushed and coughed before regaining her composure. "Err I mean how could you lose. You need to train harder." She wore a white Kimono with a black sash that both contrasted and complemented her black hair and white eyes. All in all she was a younger copy of Hinata.

Naruto sweatdropped at what he just saw. "When did this happen? I thought you didn't have a soul." Hinata only offered a confused look because apparently she did not know either. She had been watching the last half of the sparring match but was surprised when her sister also arrived. She had not said a word or even acknowledged that Hinata was right next to her.

Right now, Hanabi had pulled Konohamaru off Udon. Careful of the tacks. She plonked his head on her lap rather unceremoniously. She carefully pulled out a small vial of clear liquid and dropped a drop into his lips. Strangest of all. While it looked inexperienced and unromantic it still felt genuine. Konohamaru even said thanks before smiling and sitting up. Hanabi kissing his cheek before helping him up. They stood before the blond holding hands.

"H-ho… What? When?"

"It's for Status." Both said in unison like they had agreed this was how they were going to justify it. True she was a princess and he was an heir to a clan. But neither Jonin bought it.

"Kurama? What do you think."

"Urg their aura is too bright even Hinata has a better job than her at toning it down." The demon was overdramatically shading his eyes. Not that anyone could see but his ability to sense emotion in a visual way was sometimes considered a curse. Although a wide grin spread across his face. "Hey, Hinata, would you like me to ruin your image of your dear sister."

The girls immediately blushed a very deep crimson while the boys took a while to understand what Kurama had meant. Both sisters in unison squeaked 'no' over and over. Much to the fox's amusement as he roared in laughter. He did not need to say anything but Hinata always had a perverted mind.

Kurama finished his teasing by sniffing loudly and obviously. Again, Hinata was quick to key in and quickly pegged Naruto's nose. Forgetting her close proximity for a moment. Of course Naruto had an enhanced since of smell.

"I-i-i-its n-not what y-your thinking sister!" Hanabi tried to reason. Meanwhile, Konohamaru's penny just dropped.

"No no I swear we kept it PG." Hanabi looked at him stunned.

"Idiot you weren't supposed to tell them anything."

"Idiot? They guessed almost instantly!"

She was stunned. "I… err need to get going. Gotta get ready for tonight…"

"Err yeah I need to get cleaned up. Yeah. Naruto, thank you for the spar. Can't wait to train with you."

"Yeah by the way sister, you look cute with him." Hanabi added

Both Ninja left really quickly in opposite direction.

Hinata finally registered that she was practically holding Naruto pressed up against her. She blushed but stayed in his arms a moment longer. Savouring his smell. She had let go of his nose by now much to the blondes' confusion who was trying to smell what he had missed out.

"What did she mean by you look cute with me?"

"I… She… should we recover the other two?" Hinata wanted to answer but her nerve gave in at the last second.

Naruto on the other hand was still in his musings.

"But you looked cute before." He was oblivious that Hinata had heard him and she just stood there stunned and watched him walk towards Moegi. Blush painting her cheeks red. The colour contrasting much to her snow-white eyes.


	16. Chapter XVI Even demons can learn!

**Another good ol chapter. I really need to get back into the habit of writing but hopefully i'll pick up steam once more.**

 **RavenShadow: You asked and you shall receive. As for Naruto, sorry it's painfully slow, the events of _The Last_ movie did not happen in this fiction. And to be fair it did take Naruto to chase Hinata to the moon before he realised anything. Rest assured I promise not to disappoint, just keep reading on to find out. Besides this chapter should be just what you're looking for. **

**Thank you for reading this far.**

 **Two weeks later (or eighteen days after Fukushi vanished with Monica.)**

Naruto had quickly falling into an intense but steady training routine. Each day he'd wake as the sun rose and left after a shower and some food to the training fields. He would go to the most secluded of the fields, one in which only Rock Lee would bother to go to as other people opted to just take the closer, more handy fields. The jinchuriki would go through a warm up regime before splitting some clones off to practice the wind jutsu that Sasuke had given him. they were a series of simple jutsu which essentially manipulated air chakra into bursts of varying degrees of usefulness to Naruto's already established combat practice.

Naruto found out he couldn't use his clones to practice the Haraishin. The instructions were good but the way the jutsu worked seemed to disrupt the clones' chakra just enough that they would fail the jutsu and vanish in a puff of smoke. Naruto had to deal with the disorientating effects of teleportation alone. That and the intense drain on his impressive chakra reserves. The jutsu requires good reserves and a fine-tuned control. He would work through rain or sun to get used to the effects. He no longer simply moved from one side of the field to the other; Naruto was trying to throw the tri-pronged kunai and teleporting before the blade hit his mark and grab it.

There were some distinct differences to Naruto's haraishin and Fukushi's lightning teleportation. For one thing, Naruto didn't cause two lightning strikes as he moved around. Blink and you would miss the very brief flash as Naruto teleported.

Today he had been training in the rain. The weather came in thick and fast; striking the ground and causing mini splashes the water impacted the puddling surface. Naruto was catching his breath after another teleport. He was soaked through and his blond hair took more like a dirty brown mop as the water drenched his clothes. Not even waterproof material could stop this rain. Naruto didn't care though. He appreciated the cool water against his body as the jutsu also left him feeling overheated, probably from exerting energy rather than a side effect. Often he would look at the air around his hands and see the visible steam ebbing off his exposed skin.

Kurama was being surprisingly helpful for once. He would sit within Narutos mindscape and tell him when his body and chakra was ready to move again. Two weeks in and Naruto was too disorientated to move for about ten seconds and wasn't ready to teleport again for another five minutes. While this was about four minutes, fifty-nine and two-thirds of a second longer than his father, Minato. Naruto took a deep breath and with all his might he threw the kunai across the field. Easily one hundred yards, and fast enough to create a low whistle as the kunai cut through air and rain alike. Naruto immediately concentrated and once his chakra was aligned he held up his left hand and released the jutsu. In a crack of energy, he was pulled through by the kunai he had thrown. Naruto managed to grab the blade before it struck the target but as he spun to hit the target on the side, as was the aim of the exercise, he would misjudge his movement and spun too fast only to fall to the floor feeling dizzy; and wet.

Naruto grumbled at the graceless fall. He got up and patted down his ass. Not helping him other than smearing the mud around and getting hand dirty. Not that he had any clean patches left by the point in the day.

"At least you didn't land on your face this time." Kurama smirked from within.

"Shut up Furball." Naruto was too tired to really chew Kurama out but he didn't want the fox to walk all over him. "It's been over a week since I made progress with this, why is it so hard?"

"Wouldn't be worth it if it was easy, remember your rasengan?"

Naruto thought for a moment. "Wow that was a long time ago, I remember I destroyed a lot of trees and rocks to get it right."

"So quit bitching and get on with it. Or I'll win bragging rights over Sai."

"It would be a lot easier if I didn't have to wait so long to get my body ready for it again."

"Why don't you leave the target alone and try to get your speed up?"

"Because last time I tried that I was not only sick, you swore to kill me in the most horrific way imaginable, you're in sync with my senses now remember." Naruto had a good point. Kurama had never felt nauseated, until now, and he hated that feeling almost as much as he hated the sharingan. He scrunched up his nose at Naruto then sighed after taking a deep breath.

"Urg fine just get it over with. I won't eat you, much." He grumbled at a barely audible level.

Naruto took a deep breath. He didn't like feeling sick any more than that fox. He threw the special kunai again. Teleported and immediately threw it across the field before grabbing it a third time. Almost losing his footing he threw it a fourth time and managed to teleport. By now he was so disorientated he couldn't even see the trees around the field, it was all just a blur. Images from the previous jumps aggregated into a horribly disorientating image within the blonds mind. He managed a fifth teleportation before his body didn't know what to do anymore and to Naruto he thought gravity was in some direction off to his right. He fell painfully into the mud and stayed still to let his head rest.

Rain fell over the tired shinobi. Yet he enjoyed the therapeutic sound and each drop that drummed across his face.

"Hinata is coming boy. Unless you want her to think you're sleeping on the job. I'd get up." Kurama advised, although Naruto only attempt at getting up resulted in him putting his hand in the wrong place and falling back to the mud with a groan.

"N-Naruto!" Her startled voice called out. She saw enough to see him fail to get up. Fearing he was injured she rushed to his side in a blink of an eye. "Naruto!"

"Relax, he's just dizzy." Kurama's voice growled out, Hinata just nodded and reached into a small bag she was carrying with her and took out a couple pills with some water. She helped Naruto up who was swaying as his head struggled to stop spinning. Without a word, he took the medicine and stood still trying to recover. They walked to a small shelter that every field had off to one side and Naruto sat. He drank the water before speaking.

"Thanks for that Hinata, I needed it." He gave her a smile. He would have leaned on her as he was still feeling rough but decided against it as she was filthy and she was wearing a white kimono. "Why the fancy wear Hinata?"

"Oh, I just came out of the Hyuuga compound." She blushed. "I wanted to get you something for the nausea so quickly that I didn't bother changing."

"I managed five in a row, which is better than last time I guess." Naruto grinned over his achievement, although it was obvious the headache was painful.

"Urg but you certainly feel it." It was now Kurama's turn to get the headache. Hinata giggled. She would have never of guessed the infamous nine-tailed biju would have such issues with being sick. They sat in the shelter as Naruto was dripping wet and Hinata had the sense to use an umbrella. They listened to the unrelenting rain on the roof and nearby puddles. It was tranquil sitting there and resting as it rained. Eventually Naruto shivered as the cold soaked through to his bones. The lady of the pair noticed immediately.

"Would you like me to get you some dry clothes?"

"Hmm, not sure, wouldn't they only get wet and dirty. I have to train for a couple more hours yet."

"I just don't want you to catch a cold. Who knows how Kurama would feel about it." She poked at Naruto's stomach where the seal once was.

"I'll eat you both." He snapped, Kurama would have been intimidating but he spoke with many groans and if they could see him now, he was laying on his back with a paw on his forehead.

"I'll go and get a change of clothes, at least you could go home dry tonight."

"You're probably right, here, my keys." He handed her the keys to his apartment. She had a brief blush on her cheeks but took them and stood up to leave while checking her umbrella. It was crimson red with cherry blossoms patterned over it and contrasted sharply with her pale while figure. She stood outside the shelter and looked at Naruto for a moment. If only he would know how she felt. They were closer than ever before but she wanted more. Smiling at the dirty blond she walked up the path towards Konoha. Naruto smiled back but couldn't help feel a bit lonely in the shelter once she walked up a small bank and down again out of view. Naruto stood up and wiped his face before throwing the kunai with all his might across the training field once more.

An hour passed and Naruto was back to catching his breath as he had just used the hiraishin again. He was getting the hang of this. The rain was falling as much as it had been all day and still didn't show signs of letting up. Hinata approached him again hiding under the same crimson umbrella but this time she was in her shinobi attire of a thick lilac jacket, waterproof but also covering her figure and navy-blue ninja pants with her holster attached to her right leg. She was carrying another bag of spare clothes and set them in the dry before joining Naruto. She walked up to him but stopped a couple yards away and readied herself into a battle stance. Bent low, legs apart and hands stretched out and ready to strike. She didn't say a word but Naruto grinned at her.

"Want some training too?"

"Byakugan!" She called out. Naruto thought about closing the distance with his new jutsu but decided he probably would be too open. He opted to run at her and engaged in hand-to-hand combat. While Naruto was initially able to push her about, she quickly recovered and retaliated with her gentle fist. Not on full strength but enough to simulate the effects in real combat. They jumped back and shook off the aches from hitting each other's arms and hands. Naruto's attacks were powerful and any chance of blocking only resulted in a grinding pain that would whittle down his opponents. Hinata by contrast utilised fast and precise strikes which lacked the physical damage but, as she was observing now, the pain from disrupting chakra was evident in Naruto's arms as he shook them.

"Want to make this interesting?"

Hinata smiled, she felt most comfortable around him and she knew that she was at his side. Even if they were meant to be sparring against each other. To her it was simply improving his and her own ability. "Sure, what would you like _if_ you beat me?" She stressed the if.

"A massage?" Naruto's forwardness made her blush which was the opening he needed to test his new jutsu, the air fist. He wove the signs before Hinata could recover and sent a wall of compressed air to her. The jutsu picked up the rain making her very wet as she was splashed by it. Knocked over backwards, Hinata landed in a handstand before jumping back with a graceful back-flip. Naruto noted the effect of knocking opponents back.

"Oh for that. I won't tell you what you'll have to do for me when you lose." She sent a glare over at the blond. Although it was not a sincere glare. She was just wanting to tease.

"Eight trigrams: Sixty-four palms." Naruto gulped as he realised he's unleashed the Hyuuga monster. At this point he'd much rather fight Kurama than face the gentle fist. He parried her first two attacks. Parried the next four but now she was getting too fast for him to retaliate. Each time he tried to disengage she was fast enough to close the distance once more.

"Eight palms." she called out and chased Naruto as he tried to back off. She struck him twice accurately on the left shoulder. His arm felt numb as the chakra was cut off. "sixteen palms." Hinata was really letting him have it. But Naruto flicked his special kunai off to one side before she hit him again. Just before her hand would have struck him in the gut he flashed a few paces to her right. He Flicked the kunai back and flashed back in front of her, a fist implanted into the Hyuugas' gut followed by a swinging kick to her chest. Going easy didn't help either of them and now with steaks on the table they threw the gloves off. Hinata jumped back after the kick. Another summersault and she was after Naruto again. Charging her chakra into her fists as she ran.

"Twin lion fists!" With her left she punched Naruto in the stomach and with the second she gave him an uppercut to the chin. Naruto flew in the air but before Hinata got a few free strikes the Naruto in front of her burst to smoke. She turned around and expertly palmed the flying kunai out of the air despite being unarmed. She spied the last one was three-pronged and got ready for Naruto to appear in-front of her. No. Behind. She felt a kick to the back as the kunai was used as a good distraction from the real attack. She tumbled into the mud and stood up heaving heavily for oxygen and now just as muddy as Naruto. Her hair was soaked and stuck closely to her scalp. Steam radiated from her body much like Naruto had been.

Naruto took a deep breath. "Shadow clone Jutsu!" and four Naruto's appeared and charged at Hinata who closed her eyes and channelled her chakra into the rain falling over them. Her gentle fist attacks fell, literally, on the clones and caused them to poof into smoke. Naruto was expecting this, and used the smoke as cover. He threw a mix of regular and special kunai. Teleporting by Hinata and swiped her feet out from under her. She rolled and got up in time to intercept Naruto. Suddenly, the girl slipped on the mud and fell on Naruto who broke her fall but immediately took advantage and rolled over so he was on top instead and held a kunai to her neck signalling that he had won.

Their pair were face to face and in the heat of the moment Naruto leaned in for a kiss. He just felt drawn to her lips for some reason. Too tired to make sense of what he was doing. However his hesitation allowed for some of his barriers to be rebuilt. Naruto stopped himself and receded after realising two things. First they weren't alone and second he realised that Hinata probably would not appreciate him acting that way. To him, only lovers kiss.

Hinata Hyuuga was also lost in the moment. She thought he was going to kiss her and her mind shut down. He pulled away. She pulled him back down. Their lips touched for the briefest moment before she too noticed they weren't alone. They both shot up and looked sheepish in front of their visitors. Hinata's blush was so deep it almost shone through the mud.

Naruto stood up to see Kakashi in his Hokage attire, with him was Anko and Kurenai. They had been wanting to check up on how their old students were getting along. Kakashi knew about Naruto being here. Found Kurenai who was looking for Hinata to catch up and ask her to babysit. Logic being the two were together. Anko just so happened to be at the right place at the right time and had a 'good feeling' that coming along as a good idea. She was not disappointed. They watched the sparring match came to a close. Only to see a young couple, wet and dirty, fall on each other and almost loose themselves in the moment.

"You did that on purpose Hinata." Anko called out trying to hold back her laughter. Naruto looked like a startled deer in headlights. He quickly realised he was saddling Hinata and jumped up off the now muddy girl. "I get it, you wanted some alone time." She waved her hands dismissively. "But please not outside, or at least not in plain view."

"It's not what it looks like!" Naruto begged. "I... We... Sorry Hinata." Rubbing his shoulder as he realised it was now completely numb, he knew it was going to sting later as well. Hinata had poured her full strength into those strikes.

"Come on out of the wet you two." Kakashi called trying to change the subject. If he hadn't been the one to make his presence known, then Kurenai would remain in a silent shock and Anko in a silent intrigue. "I appreciate you trying to stick you your regime but if you get ill at this rate. You'll end up losing more time than simply avoiding getting sick."

"Mhn Hinata was saying that earlier." He helped her up off the muddy floor.

"Hokage's orders." Kakashi spoke softer but still loud enough above the rain. "Shall we get going? Not like you're gonna get any wetter out here."

Reluctantly Naruto agreed. He had about two-three hours before nightfall but it was too difficult to tell in the storm

"I am too muddy to go back now." Hinata sighed. Her father wouldn't let her back into the compound with a ten-foot pole when she was this dirty. The Hyuuga clan had a thing for cleanness, which made the post training cleaning the bane of her life. "You go ahead I have a change of clothes here."

"Urm." Naruto blushed. "You can get changed at mine, at least it's warm and dry there, and I don't mind the mud." He scratched the back of his head which at this point just swirled mud into his hair. Anko and Kakashi looked at each other trying to hold back a knowing grin. Well, as best as you could tell behind Kakashi's mask. Both had read far too much of Jiraiya's work in the Icha Icha series to not know where this was leading. Perhaps the blond did know about her feelings. In secret Hinata had been building up the courage by asking, mostly Kurenai, but also had the mistake of asking Anko about it. The Snake-lady had been coiling her influence around her ever since.

Kurenai, who was the sweet romantic type, smiled at the thoughtful gesture. "If you like, I can lend you some of my soaps. I doubt Naruto has anything a woman should use."

"That would be very generous of you, sensei." Hinata replied and giving her a slight bow which made her heavy hair fall in front of her face.

The pair of young ninja gathered their stuff and started walking back towards the city centre.

* * *

Rain. It had been raining all day now and those who were out braving the weather were rushing to their destination. Many of the drains were overflowing and it felt like there were small streams and waterfalls falling off every roof. Kakashi made his way to the Hokage tower in a shunshin as the many duties called him to return as soon as he had finished his break. He had only wanted to tell Naruto to stop because he did still worry for the young shinobi.

The pair of younger shinobi were getting a few looks of pity as they marched through the town caked in mud. Anko and Kurenai were both ahead and talking to each other. Naruto couldn't hear them over the rain but could probably tell what the topic was as Kurenai slapped Anko back and called her a pervert. Hinata was lost in thought and so the two walked in silence. Little did Naruto know she was building up the courage to fulfill the bet and give Naruto a massage.

"Alright we are here. I would invite you out of the rain but." Kurenai tried to break it to them gently.

"You two are more dirty than Jiraiya's mind." Anko continued for her.

"That and if Mirai hugged you…"

"We get it. we will wait under your porch." Naruto finished.

"Thank you for understanding." Kurenai sang as she entered her home with Anko. Five minutes later which Hinata and Naruto talking about the thunder-god technique, how he managed to do it without feeling too disorientated because he was focussing on the match and not on the technique. Hinata, on the other hand, was still apologising for slipping and falling onto Naruto. They had just made up, not that Naruto was offended but the sentiment was there, when Kurenai reappeared with Mirai in one arm and a bag of shampoo, soaps, and oils in the other. Hinata accepted the bag. Naruto spied how much soap she received and wondered if every female needed this much. He was set on one bottle of shampoo after all.

"Oh, I would offer an umbrella but I think it's a bit late for that. You two get dry fast unless you catch a cold. And Naruto? You can keep these. I'm sure Hinata would appreciate you looking after them."

"Thanks." The pair muttered and with a sigh they begrudgingly walked back into the rain. Naruto's apartment wasn't far from Kurenai's house and the two decided to pick up the pace to get out of the wet sooner. After thumbing for his keys, Naruto burst through the door and immediately walked to the dial and turned on the heating.

"You can take the first shower, I'll get you a towel." With that he left for his room and within a minute he throws a towel out onto the sofa and closed the door to get changed. Hinata looked around his apartment. Brand new from being rebuilt when Pein destroyed it before the war. Through lack of use the place had remained clean. Hinata could still remember how messy his old apartment looked like.

The apartment contained a central living room with three doors leading to other rooms. To her left was the far door to Naruto's room and the closer door was his bathroom. To her right was the open door to his kitchen to which she could see the oven and a line of cabinets and shelves. The living room had a small coffee table in between a TV and a sofa. The floor was wooden throughout but covered in rugs which she tried to no get mud on. He had one other seat which was part of the set along with the sofa. Hinata smiled as this was the first time she was invited in properly as opposed to earlier when she was alone. She stepped into the bathroom and started to peel off her jacket. Everything felt dirty as she stripped but the feeling of the warm water was heaven to her body once she actually got under the stream. She blushed as she remembered something. She was naked and in Naruto's house!

Naruto wasn't the only one who was freaking somewhat. Hinata was the first girl his age that he had invited in as well. He had changed into clean, casual clothes but still had dirt in his hair and face so he was going to take the second shower. He blushed. After Hinata. For what felt like hours he finally heard a knock on the door.

"C-can I come in?"

"Sure." Naruto tried to hide his blush as she entered his room. She was wearing leggings and a shirt which revealed her shapely figure. Which was a rare sight for most people. Her exposed skin was still a little flushed from the hot water but otherwise was ever smooth and pristine. She was one of the few Konoha twelve to receive very little scarring damage. The injuries she did have were either concealed or her naturally pale skin made them difficult to see.

"The showers free." Hinata asked with a soft sweet voice although you could tell she was nervous.

"T-thanks oh and about before? What we betted on... you don't have to d-do that."

"Mnn it's fine I've been reading a-about it and wanted to try it on you."

"On me?"

"W-we work a-a lot together." She took a deep breath and her cheeks were blushing. "I want to see you at your best."

Naruto nodded and slowly got up and picked up a towel. He couldn't help but look at Hinata in a way someone should look onto a goddess. To him, Hinata was certainly a goddess. Someone who accepted everything about him and more importantly had his back. Now he was doing many missions with her. He could trust her with his life at a moments notice. She was truly his precious person that he vowed to protect with his everything.

Kurama, on the other hand, was looking with intrigue. Her bag was open and he could see a book with an orange cover. An unmistakable orange of the Icha Icha series. Yes, other books have orange covers but he could see enough of the art style to have a pretty accurate guess. 'Oh, this is going to be interesting.' Naruto was too busy looking at the main spectacle to notice this little detail and Kurama smiled a more perverted smile. A smile that would have made Jiraiya proud. In ways Naruto influenced the biju, perversion is one emotion that the fox didn't mind. It made his relatively dull life within Naruto much more interesting. Sometimes him and Naruto would just sit and giggle about things they had heard in the day. Only when no one is around. The sight of Naruto giggling to himself, alone, would unnerve anyone who saw.

Kurama managed to read with Naruto the Icha Icha series. At first it was all about honouring Jiraiyas memory but it quickly grew into enjoyment and so Naruto's road to corruption was complete. Although he often found himself picturing Hinata more often. Admittedly he used to picture Sakura but over time she faded into who was clearly Hinata. Naruto would slap himself that she was the pinnacle of innocence and would be grossly offended if Naruto let slip that he was a pervert. He understood objectively that those kind of things suggested from the Icha Icha were out of lust not love. He just did not understand how the two emotions interacted.

Kurama, while having many typical masculine character traits such as, outlook, power, and voice he technically was not a male and has no concept of genders. because he was made of chakra and not flesh and blood. Not that he was ignorant to sex or the pleasures it brings. But he never uses it as basis to judge or pre-determine characteristics. Nor did he understand the social cues around it. Which had made it awkward for Naruto to masturbate. More-so now that Naruto is aware he is able to feel the same sensations. Often demanding that Kurama shuts off his sensors and not pay attention.

Kurama was well versed in the emotion called lust but when Naruto asked to have love explained to him. The Nine-tails was stumped. All he could say was it was his precious people. He loved them all. But there was something extra. A piece that neither understood.

Naruto had finished the shower by now and was getting dressed before returning to Hinata who seemed to be getting everything ready. Kurama at this point guessed she was using the Icha Icha to get ideas of what to do with Naruto. Her face was bright red as she suggested with her hand to lay on the bed. Naruto slowly complied and lay on the bed.

"Erm, could you take your top off." Hinata whispered.

"Wha? Oh? Yeah." Naruto slowly slipped off his top to reveal a toned body, his skin looked like it had faint tiger stipes. The biju healing powers worked wonders on any injury but left small marks which would be invisible and Hinata was close enough to see the slight variations in colour. Naruto slowly laid down onto his bed. Momentarily wriggling to get comfortable.

The Hyuuga girl was blushing a deep crimson by now as she kneeled by Naruto's laying body. She carefully poured a little bit of the oil that Kurenai had given her onto her hand and rubbed the smooth liquid in between her fingers. She took a deep breath and placed her hands onto his shoulders. Naruto tensed up momentarily out of reflex but soon relaxed as Hinata rubbed oil down his back. Hinata had never practiced massaging but the Icha Icha books that Anko advised did have some details on how to do it. She wanted to try out the happy ending that usually follows but she felt that Naruto would judge her for it and all her hard work would be thrown to the wind.

Pressing her thumbs below the shoulder blades and her fingers on the top of the shoulder blades she rubbed up and down on the spot where her thumbs were pressing to either side of his spine. Every minute or two she would move her hands two inches down and continued. Once she reached the small of his back she rubbed up to his shoulders and almost grabbing them only putting the pressure in the palms of her hands. She continued to work over his shoulder muscles. Naruto just had his eyes closed and relaxing as her hands warmed up finally and were working wonders over his back. He hadn't realised how much the strain of training put onto his body until Hinata rubbed all the stress away.

"Oh god yes, right there, please." Kurama's voice suddenly echoed out causing the pair to jump. "Urg I wish I knew you so much sooner, my god this feels good."

"Kurama!" Naruto snapped.

"Heh, sorry, you gotta tell them how good it feels. It's my first massage too you know."

"I keep forgetting you can feel everything." Naruto would have complained more but Hinata had saddled herself into a more comfortable position on Naruto's ass and started massaging with renewed passion.

"Mmm you know how to pick the perfect ones." Kurama growled quietly under his breath.

"Does it really feel that good?" Hinata asked after a few minutes of massage, Naruto looked over his shoulder at the young woman who had her byakugan on and she was tracing out his chakra network with her finger. The patterns she was tracing were subtle-yet-intricate spirals and circles, the way she was able to send very small amounts of chakra made for very soothing and warm sensations where Naruto's and Hinata's chakra interacted.

"The best feeling I've felt ever." He didn't tell her but this was the closest anyone had been to him. He was not sure what to think of it but the relief her hands gave were undoubtable.

"T-then could you turn over?" Naruto did as was asked and was laying down looking up at the most beautiful woman he had the luck to know. Her byakugan was now off and left her eyes relaxed and giving him a happy or caring look. "Let me heal where I struck you today." She carefully rubbed his collar bone where Naruto took two gentle fist strikes. At first, he was reminded how painful those sores were but with every touch the pain ebbed away. Hinata was applying some of her chakra to help heal the nodes that were forcibly switched off.

Naruto was grateful he had the foresight to tuck his bulge in the right way. She was sitting on his hip and leaning over him while gently massaging his chest now. He didn't want to ruin the moment by poking her with his arousal. However, Hinata was fully aware of what she was doing to him but she wanted him to see her as innocent so she chose not to act on it.

"Hinata?" Naruto blushed. "What is love?"

She froze. Her crystal eyes focusing down on his sapphire. Her mind was trying its hardest to decode his meaning but how could she miss-interoperate. Seconds ticked by as they both stared at each other.

"Y-you d-don't know?" Her voice was barely audible.

Naruto for a moment looked defeated. His gaze settled off to the left and out of the window. He swallowed. The Adam's apple obviously moving and it looked almost as if he was in pain.

"Forget it. Sorry I asked."

Slowly she leaned in and kissed him on his cheek. Her lips were very soft and left a slight cooling sensation. Before Naruto could react she whispered.

"It's something only you can know but you I know you will know it. Because I..." She clearly hesitated before finishing her sentence. "I know it."

Naruto noticed for the first time. Her proximity and his hearing allowed him to notice a certain detail. Her heartbeat. It wasn't just racing but it was completely synchronised to his own. She laid down on his chest and pressed her ear against his skin. Likely also thinking how synchronised their hearts were at that moment.

"This moment is perfect." Hinata softly breathed out. Naruto hesitated but slowly his hand found its way to her silk-like blue hair. Carefully he combed his fingers through her hair. 'Was this what she meant?' Before she could think any more Hinata sighed heavily before sitting back up.

"I guess I should go. My father will be worrying about my absence. Your chakra should be fine now I made sure your coils are properly open."

"Hn. Yeah you better. I don't want Hiashi coming after me." The Uzumaki couldn't help but shiver as the cold air breathed over his torso once Hinata left him. Much to Hinata's disappointment this had meant he reached for a shirt and got dressed. "I there any way I can err repay you?"

The Hyuuga shook her head. "I wanted to. Well I better get going. I'll see you tomorrow though." She sounded hopeful.

She was shown out of the door and Naruto watched her leave until she reached the bottom of his apartment complex only to gracefully jump up and out of sight. It was Naruto's turn to sigh heavily. 'She made him feel this good because she wanted to?' Kurama in the meantime had a breakthrough. He gave a wolf-like smile and softly muttered. 'I see your game. Teaching him without influencing him.'

"Hey Kurama? Is love doing things for others simply because you wanted to?"

The demon chuckled. "You'll know when you see it. Just connect the dots kid."


	17. Chapter XVII The Pink Ninja of Konoha!

**And back to the other pairing of the story, plus plot, hope you enjoy. And excuse iffy updates, I am honestly in the middle of writers block for my other projects. It's been tough.**

 **Sultryvoice: Thank you, I hope I write them well. I always aim for my romance to be believable yet interesting.**

 **RavenShadow: Glad I didn't drag things out too long. I had to make sure the romance was believable, the movie _the last_ does not happen in this story so Hinata was never kidnaped, sent to the moon, and married before Naruto got his act together. So I've opted that they have been closer since the war but Naruto is clueless... for now.**

 **Redredredredred: Cheers!**

 **Please continue your support, cheers.**

 **p.s. nearly had to do the edits three times. ~.~**

 **Sakura and Sasuke's point of view, a day later as the storm had passed, somewhere in the land of fire.**

Two shinobi were seen walking down the road. One had a dark blue cloak covering him and long black hair that covered his left eye. The other worse a white with red rims on the bottom of the cloak and showed bright bubble-gum pink hair. The pair was none other than Sasuke and Sakura, walking in a comfortable silence and side by side. Instead of his usual glare, Sasuke was looking around him and a mildly interested look. Since Naruto had proved that there was more to the world than simple hatred. Sasuke looked up and around and noticed the world around him and how peaceful it really felt. For this reason, you could argue that he even enjoyed Sakura's company. Her companionship was one of mutual desire, one of which Sasuke hadn't experienced since he abandoned the Leaf Village.

As for Sakura, her heart was finally settled. From crush to full blown love, Sasuke had been a heavy weight. With all things said and done she finally was able to be with him. She had noticed the Uchiha had developed some quirks. for example, this one, neither had spoken in around an hour but he was lost in deep thought and it was easy to read his face. He was debating many things to himself. Sakura was curious to what was going through his mind but dared not to ask, in case he took things the wrong way. Last thing she wanted was to ruin her bonds that she worked so hard to maintain.

The pair were walking to a village west from the Leaf. It was another simple farming village but one ran by a rich noble. His name was Tsunchi Origarna, from what she heard the name was one of the better types of noble. Often not ripping off those who worked on his land. Instead they were spending money on interesting artefacts. Of which Sasuke had a good guess that he had one of those coveted pages that Fukushi was willing to kill others for.

Sasuke already knew the man from his travels and so he doubted there would be any trouble seeing him now. So the two walked on, the sun was surprisingly hot in the late summer months despite the miserable weather that poured the day before. Only the shade provided by the trees to either side of the road provided the cooling relief from the heat the air was still humid and made everything clammy to the touch. After an hour of walking down the main road the shinobi turned off to a relatively small track leading up the hill and past a few fields with tall un-ripe grain growing in long rows. Occasionally a gentle breeze shifted the grain in waves like the ocean and lightly tugged of Sakuras and Sasuke's hair.

"You're a lot quieter than you used to be." Sasuke's voice cut through the silence, snapping Sakura out of her own daze. "A penny for your thoughts?"

She sighed. "It's nothing. Just one of those days I guess."

"If you're worried about offending me, you can put those thoughts to rest you know." He looked over his shoulder at her.

"I'm just not used to you like this. You tried to kill me before. It's a complete turn of personality."

"Sorry." Sakura looked with a shocked expression at the man while he broke eye contact and looked away. "I don't expect you to forgive me."

"Call me and idiot, but I already have."

"But I haven't done anything to earn forgiveness, not yet anyway Hmph. You're sounding like Naruto."

"You don't need to, you know that I love you."

"Then at least let me earn your affection."

Sakura stopped dead in the road. 'Had he just said that? Did he mean it?' Sasuke could only chuckle to himself.

"Is it really that surprising? You're one of the people I've hurt the most so I believe I could never be truly forgiven unless I don't first redeem myself in your eyes." Sasuke continued. He was always vague about his true feeling but Sakura was slowly adding up the clues left behind. Maybe he was being won over by her? After all he was only accepted by two people, Sakura and Naruto. But before Sakura could continue, Sasuke pointed out that they were there.

The pair walked through a wooden gateway to see an open garden leading up to a small hill where the eastern style mansion stood. The hillside had three tiers of garden that snaked up towards the house itself. There were many streams, ponds, exotic looking plants. Everything protected by high plastered walls making each tiers feel like its own little world. Sakura, who had some knowledge of plants spied several rare herbs among the flowers which were still in their summer bloom. Ino would love it here.

Soon they reached the grand entrance and Sasuke knocked on the large oak double doors. After a minute of waiting a young man opened the door, he was in his late teens and wearing formal work-ware. He politely bowed at the shinobi.

"Ah, Sasuke, we weren't expecting you. Please follow me to my master, they are in the greenhouse." The man signalled them in and the pair followed him through the building to a central courthouse with a glass ceiling and more plants with water features in the centre of the room. Tsunchi and his wife were sitting together and watching the fish swim in the pond. They were an elderly couple wearing equally smart robes of dark purples and bright golds. The wife being more ornate than the man. They both had similar grey hair and spent their golden years enjoying the wealth they had worked to get. Clearly not like most nobles who were born into such luxuries. The two looked up and instantly recognised the Uchiha.

"Oo! Sasuke, what a surprise, come sit. Bring your girlfriend here too." The elder woman spoke with enthusiasm and caused Sakura to blush a bright pink, almost to the colour of her hair. "I knew you would attract such a beautiful young woman, eee I told you didn't I dear?"

The old man chuckled. "Yes, you're right as ever." The young pair sat with the Origarna couple. Sasuke slightly smirked with amusement.

"I agree, you seem to have quite the foresight in such things." Sasuke replied and caused Sakura to blush more.

"So how about introductions, what's your name sweetie?" The wife spoke.

"I-I'm Sakura Haruno." She gave a bow and a deep breath.

"I'm Kazuko and this is my husband, Tsunchi." The elderly lady smiled.

"So, what brings you two here?" Tsunchi spoke. "Not that I mind you coming here. We enjoy the company. Just, we also know that you're a man of business." He gestured at the two guests to take a seat out of the numerous ones available. The same man who showed them in came back with some tea and started to pour a cup for the two shinobi who took up their drinks and quietly sipped before Sasuke replied.

"You are right. We are after something of yours, at least I hope you have it. If not I hope that your connections could still help us to find what we are looking for."

"Oh? becoming a collector yourself?" Tsunchi smiled. "Taking it after me? Very well see if I can help you."

"We are looking for a particular type of artefact, a page, but written in an unknown language which I believe is from the far west. The page should look faded and about A-three large, flat but I am sure many of them are rolled up by now."

The old man leaned back and thought deeply about his collection. After a minute or two he looked like he remembered something and spoke. "Follow me." He slowly got up and signalled for Sasuke to follow. Sakura decided to stay and talk to Kazuko, she felt bad leaving her by herself and she was sure Sasuke had a better idea of the house than she did.

Tsunchi's library was impressive. A large room spanning two stories and had many ladders and staircases leading to separate showcases of many objects found throughout the world. Many objects included rare books, jewellery, weapons, armour, and other trinkets and small secrets of the world. Tsunchi lead Sasuke to his study which was a much smaller room behind the library but equally full of interesting research that Sasuke was sure he'd find interesting if he had the time, but a shinobi's life he had and so a shinobi's life he must lead.

"It's interesting you should ask for that because I got one such page two months ago, and another last week. Their price plummeted for some reason but I think they are very interesting. Especially when some are given the names of 'Cursed pages'. I'm afraid I just can't help myself. While I don't believe in curses. I do know our world holds many mysteries."

"You know you're right, the paper isn't cursed." Sasuke clarified and the many muttered in agreement. "But there is someone going after these pages and he's been killing anyone who has them. This is why I was going to ask for them off you."

"Hmm that does sound bad. It's nice to see you thought of us though." Tsunchi chuckled as he emptied the content of an envelope. "I tried to translate through this company that had recently set up, ah what's their name. 'Scrutator curators'. I think, they seemed to be keen on artefacts so I thought I would give them a try. This would be a month ago now for this first page."

The two men crowded around the study table and Sasuke picked up the sheet of paper and glanced over. His sharingan activated as he glanced over the page, the crimson red picking up all the details instantly. Somehow recognising the words just like he was able to understand the spirit left in Fukushi's head. He had no actual knowledge of the language but the sharingan neatly filled out the gaps and somehow Sasuke understood.

"Yeah, it's a page I'm looking for, although it looks different to the ones I've seen before." He looked up at his host who had seen the sharingan before when Sasuke was last here so he wasn't fazed by it.

They gazed at the letter next to it, there were two, one had all the administration and that their translation was successful. The second page was the translation itself. A page of story about a battle between all eight major families of the far west. Lun, Solaris, Lapi, Silvania, Lexius, Chao, Morsaris, and Vitaris

While the families didn't own much of the land they still held themselves as the most important powers under a single king. The repeated skirmishes only lead to the eight families into stalemates. Wealth and strategy as well as numbers equalled each other on every attempt, being so far from each other and allowing each family to flourish under their own steam. It appeared to be the same uneasy balance between the great five nations.

Soon each of the greater families grew tired of fighting for names sake and decided to end on a tournament. Each looser, by death or surrender, had to provide the rest who were at the point undefeated a secret or resource of their family. Meaning the first looser had to give something to seven families while the winner of all eight families gave nothing. The page mentioned nothing of the winning order but mentioned that the Solaris Family took last place, not through defeat but they did not mind sharing some of their 'power' with the other families. Sasuke assumed they meant ninjutsu but he could be wrong. In turn they earned respect despite the defeat. While the Lapi family ultimately won, they did so undignified as they were the only family who didn't offer a close family member of their main branch to be their champion but instead a infamous warrior whom acted like a common murderer. The Lapis Family ended up losing the most respect as the other families turned their backs on them out of shame or disgust. Dates of this suggests that this happened a very long time ago, long before the shinobi villages were founded in the known world.

Sasuke frowned a little. "So how did they translate this?"

"What do you mean?" The old man looked at Sasuke curiously.

"It's from a very far place where they don't speak our language." Sasuke sighed as he put the translation down. "You said you had this for two months. That is no time to work out something as complex as a language."

"So you think that they know about this far off place?" The man thought for a moment while Sasuke kept silent, he closed his eyes to listen to what Tsunchi would conclude. "I guess it would make sense if they are after the pages too. Most nobles mind their own business and have nothing to do with the larger politics. They would be perfect targets to turn in pages, and if they just copy and return them. No one would be the wiser over it."

"Do you mind if I take these? After all you're a target if you keep them."

"Hm yeah take them, I don't want any trouble. But Sasuke my dear boy. If this rogue shinobi is taking them by force, then why change tactics?"

"I don't know. Maybe if he is wanting to keep quiet then I guess it would be a sound strategy. But then the time lines don't add up. You had this page sent off a month ago but our shinobi problem has been illusive for only three weeks now. That and they were adamant on keeping these pages after they messed up." The Uchiha sighed. "They are younger than me I suppose." Sasuke gritted his teeth. "I don't want to admit this, but it feels like someone else knows about the pages."

"I don't have many details but I've never seen you worked up over something. Take these pages and I hope things aren't as bad as it seems." Tsunchi sighed heavily because he loved collecting but hated letting go. Nevertheless, two sheets of paper were not worth his or his families' life.

"There is something you could help me with. Firstly, tell me where you had gone to get that translation. Secondly could you find out who is selling more of those pages and send the information to the Leaf. Tell them I asked you to."

"Oh hmm. Best I can do is an address to where to post the artefacts; a collection point in the town of Kawazu. It's about a day's walk away although it is evening now. You and your partner could rest here."

"No thank you. We've asked enough of you and like to head off as soon as possible." Sasuke quickly had gone to work storing the two pages into a sealing scroll and pocketing it in one of many hidden pockets. Without much to say Sasuke returned to Sakura who was busy chatting to lady Origarna about how Sasuke had saved their son from a farming accident. Mostly about how they were very grateful of his abilities and later learned exactly how powerful the man was.

"Sakura, we're leaving."

"Oh but Sasuke dear it's getting late." Kazuko chimed out

"I already offered them dear. Unfortunately they have to be somewhere." Tsunchi interrupted.

"Something came up and we have to investigate. Tsunchi if you could find out anything please remember to contact the Leaf over it." Sasuke headed to the main doorway just as Sakura patter herself down and bowed in thanks. She followed Sasuke to the main doorway and the pair walked out into the setting sun, the evening insects starting to make their move now. Sasuke walked at a much faster pace than Sakura was expecting and she had to run to catch up.

"Sasuke? Why the rush?" Sakura called out before she could reach him.

"Someone else is after the pages. And not Fukushi nor Monica" Sakura froze momentarily to this.

"What makes you say that?" The two marched down the road towards the main highway.

"They were translated. Fukushi was trying to collect them not do a service to our nation." Sasuke held the gate open for Sakura before continuing. "He might know something that we don't. It'll explain his reckless behaviour. If he had additional pressure to get them that we simply did not find out before."

"Doesn't excuse him for killing many people."

"Right. But this is not the work of madness, desperate, but not madness."

"So where are we heading? Are we going to find Fukushi? You seem like you know where you're going."

"I managed to get an address. I doubt it'll be this easy but it's a better start than most missions in all fairness."

"I can go on all night. We should hurry."

"Good." Sasuke nodded and if he could smile he would have to Sakura right now as the moment called for it. "I have to ask though. What are your thoughts on those two."

The rosette was quiet for a moment before she spoke. "Those two act childish but I somehow don't blame them because they obviously lack any guiding but, they need to answer for what they've done. No one should get away with that, but I guess we can only make a sound decision once we know everything. From what you've just said I think there is something else going on with them." Seemingly satisfied with her answer. Sasuke channelled chakra to his legs and sped his pace up.

Through their enhanced paced from their shinobi skilled the two ninja arrived at the supposed address for collecting artefacts. The building looked plain and sat separated from the nearby town. They had been running through the night and it had not quite reached morning when the early risers would wake up and start their daily routines. Picking a good vantage point in the trees so they could see the front of the building. Plane as it looked it also showed that it was new as well. The wood wasn't weathered and moss had not yet grown over the stone walls. Sasuke and Sakura rested in silence, their plan was to catch whoever entered the building and go on from there. A simple plan that should not go wrong. Sasuke was first to sleep, Sakura persuaded him that he would be more useful during more lively hours for people to enter the building. Hours ticked by and not even a traveller had passed by. Much to Sasuke's surprise, Sakura kept up a serious face the entire time. Concentrating intensely when she was on watch and allowing Sasuke to concentrate when she was resting. More mature than he had remembered, as it was back to his turn to rest now he was remembering his time as a genin in Team 7.

"Someone's coming." She hissed in a hushed tone. Sasuke immediately stood up to look and sure enough a single man, carrying nothing but the clothes on his back. Said man walked up and unlocked the front of the shop. He hadn't noticed the two shinobi approach from behind.

"Excuse me, I was wondering is this the place to post artefacts to 'Scrutator curators'."

The man jumped as he hadn't realised he had company. "Oh hmph you know there is a deposit box."

"True, but I wanted to ask you something. You see my partner and myself are representatives of Tsunchi. He had used your services and wanted to not only use you again but meet up with you personally." Sasuke lied. Sakura knew because he was smiling and had a positive tone added to his voice. he sounded like Sai trying to fit in. However, she herself had also taken on a smiley persona and nodded at the man.

"Yes if possible could you direct us to the company themselves."

"Hmm sorry I can't I am just a runner." The man looked them up and down. "Why did he use shinobi for just a messenger job?" The pair did not show it but that runner was unusually perceptive for what his job entailed.

"Well who else better to do a job than us?"

"Hmph well I can't help you."

"But you must deliver it to someone?" Sasuke interrupted.

"You sure you want to know?"

"Yes it would be a great help." Sakura smiled once more. But the man slumped a little and slowly turned to point somewhere into the bushes.

"There."

A deafening bang, like the sound of thunder and a cloud of smoke erupted from the bush. Sasuke immediately activated his sharingan and without missing a beat he tilted his head out of the way as the round projectile missed where his head was a split second ago. Followed by a dull thud of the wood behind. The two shinobi did not stick around. Splitting off and throwing kunai into the smoke. The runner simply ducked and hid in the building.

Meanwhile about fifty paces away and cursing to every god under the stars. Was a second man in a crouched position. He had a kunai in his leg and was tried to stuff the next shot in the barrel. 'We weren't told that shinobi would find out about us, fuck this. I need to get out of here' He half muttered and half thought to himself. He threw himself onto the floor and trying to ignore the white-hot pain from the kunai in his leg. He took aim only to see the space in front of the building empty.

"Fuck they are fast." He scanned the area to see anything. "Come on one was bright pink for fuck sake." He pushed himself up to try and move. Wobbling on his leg. He felt a blade press against his throat. Through fear he tensed up and froze like a statue.

"Interesting, you have no shinobi skills yourself. So, who might you be?" Sasuke spoke with cold venom dripping in his worlds. Sakura kept her guard up and scanned the immediate area for reinforcements. Before the captured man could say anything a second shot somewhere much further rang out. The two ninja moved but Sasuke quickly realised that they weren't the target. The man who had tried to shoot Sasuke was blown back by the force of the shot. They could feel the chakra in the air as the projectile was enhanced by some sort of jutsu. The killed man quickly turned to dirt right before their eyes and crumbled half into a pile while his legs and lower torso was still made of human flesh.

Sakura covered her mouth in shock as the man was far beyond saving right now. The two knew where the shot came from and took cover by the trees nearby but the wait felt like agonising hours. Before Sasuke decided to test the waters and peak to see if he could spot the second attacker.

"Whoever it was, they are gone." Sasuke spoke after standing out fully. Sakura ad himself walked to the obviously dead man. "Ah, damn the equipment was damaged. Tsk effective jutsu for covering evidence." They observed that only the muzzle of the rifle was left intact but the ammo or the powder that Sasuke saw him use was destroyed and turned to dirt. He still picked up the remains and sealed them into a scroll. They both turned to the building and looked at eachother.

"Do you think he knows anything?" Sakura gloomily suggested before the pair walked towards the building, Sasuke needn't answer that question. They burst through the door to see a man sitting on the desk and waiting for the shinobi to return. Once he saw them enter.

"I take it he's dead then?"

"We didn't kill him." Sasuke said.

"Someone else shot him. With err whatever those weapons were called" Sakura added.

The man shook his head. "I don't know either. Honest!" He flinched as Sasuke drew out his sword. "The man you killed hired me, no one else. I was to man the shop and he kept watch for any unsavoury visitors. He was cocky though. He definitely was not a ninja but said he could take one out. I am guessing that he was wrong."

"So you really don't know anything."

"I wish I did, but he told me to keep my mouth shut and not ask questions."

Sasuke sighed. "I don't think we will find anything else out. All that must have had a contingency plan." He turned with a flick of his cloak and replaced his sword by his hip. Sakura turned around more cautiously than her beloved.

"Wait, I do know one thing. I am sorry I couldn't help you more, but, we never worked in the rain. He said his powder would get damp."

"Right." Was Sasuke's only response.

The two shinobi walked down away from the building.

"What now Sasuke?"

"We need to talk to the Hokage. What we've learned is a bit too important for a letter now."


End file.
